By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Authorities have said no fewer than 15 inmates have been killed while several others sustained various degrees of injuries in the latest riot at Ecuador’s prison system.
According to the spokesperson of SNAI, the agency that manages Ecuador’s prisons, Monday’s rioting at the Cotopaxi No 1 jail in Latacunga left “15 people dead and 20 injured.”
Governor of Cotopaxi province, Oswaldo Coronel, which includes Latacunga, told reporters normalcy had been restored. Officials say relevant agencies are working on identifying the bodies.
Reports have it that more than 400 inmates have died in prison violence since February 2021, which the government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso has attributed to gang warfare over control of territory and drug trafficking routes.
Latacunga lies about 80km (50 miles) south of the Ecuadorean capital Quito.
In July, 12 prisoners were killed at a prison in Santa Domingo, just two months after violence at the same institution killed 43 in May.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has said Ecuador has no comprehensive policy for its prison system, and inmates endure crowded and dangerous conditions.
Families believe the number of those who have died in prison unrest is far higher and have been calling for the system’s reform.
Together they have established the Committee of Families for Justice in Prisons to demand that the state be held accountable for decades of negligence.
There are about 33,500 people in Ecuador’s prisons, which are 11.3 percent beyond maximum capacity, according to official figures.
