In the early morning of this Tuesday, new incidents were reported at the Litoral Penitentiary, the largest prison in Ecuador located in Guayaquil, which left at least fifteen inmates dead and fourteen injured, according to the National Comprehensive Attention Service for Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI). The state penitentiary unit highlighted that the Security Block, made up of the Police, Armed Forces, and the Ministries of Interior and Defense, has absolute control of the penitentiary and conducted a large-scale search operation.
The Attorney General's Office has opened a preliminary investigation into these tragic events, detailing that nine inmates were reported dead and fourteen injured. The Litoral Penitentiary is part of the Guayaquil prison complex, which houses around 12,000 inmates and has been the scene of violent massacres in previous years, as part of the wave of criminal violence affecting Ecuador since late 2020.
These unfortunate events occur at a time when preparations are being made for the XXIX Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government in Cuenca, scheduled for November 14 and 15 under the theme 'Innovation, Inclusion, and Sustainability', where a wide security operation has already been deployed.
Since January of this year, Ecuador's prisons have been under military control, after President Daniel Noboa declared an internal armed conflict against criminal groups he referred to as 'terrorists.' These groups are attributed responsibility for the prison massacres that have occurred in recent years, including the murder of prison directors and other authorities.
Violence in Ecuadorian prisons has claimed the lives of more than 500 inmates between 2021 and 2023, primarily in confrontations between rival criminal gangs. Ecuador is facing a security crisis that has led to it having the highest homicide rate in Latin America, with 47.2 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023. The government has intensified measures against organized crime, considering these gangs as terrorist groups, which has led to the militarization of the prisons controlled by these criminal organizations.
