The government statements revealed on Saturday that at least 68 prisoners were killed and more than two dozen were injured in overnight violence at Ecuador’s Penitenciaria del Litoral prison, which officials describe as fights between rival gangs.
The prison, in the southern city of Guayaquil, is the same one where 119 inmates were killed in late September in the country’s worst prison violence in history.
The government has blamed the violence on the drug trafficking gangs that are fighting for control of prisons.
On Saturday afternoon, dozens of people gathered outside the prison, hoping to hear from loved ones they hadn’t heard from since Friday afternoon.
Cristina Monserrat, sister of an inmate said that the President Guillermo Lasso needs to do more to help the poor. In recent years, Ecuador’s prison system has come under fire for overcrowding and poor sanitary and living conditions for inmates.
Lasso declared a state of emergency in the prison system for 60 days in September, freeing up government funds and allowing military control of the prisons.
The President also asked the constitutional court on Saturday to allow the military to enter prisons rather than relying solely on outside security. In a statement, the court stated that resolving the prison crisis will necessitate more than temporary emergency measures.
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