At least 15 dead as inmates clash at notorious Ecuadorian prison

At least 15 people have been killed and 14 injured in clashes between inmates at one of Ecuador’s largest and most notorious prisons, local authorities say.

The violence broke out early Tuesday in one of the pavilions at Litoral Penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil, according to national prison agency SNAI.

Both Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, and the prison itself are notorious for violent confrontations between rival gangs.

By Tuesday afternoon, authorities said they had managed to regain control of the prison and carried out a large-scale search.

Murder charges will be filed against at least nine inmates, the Attorney General’s Office said.

Ecuador’s prison system has long been the main theater of violence in the country, with hundreds of inmates killed in recent years as members of competing criminal organizations square off.

Security forces have often struggled to confront the gangs inside the overcrowded facilities, where inmates have been known to take control of branches of the penitentiaries and run criminal networks from behind bars, according to Ecuadorian authorities.

This is just the latest violent episode at Litoral Penitentiary, which has seen riots and massacres in recent years and is widely considered the country’s most dangerous prison.

Last year, more than 30 people were killed, some of them beheaded, during a multi-day uprising at the prison, while in September 2021, clashes between rival gangs left more than 100 people dead.

Two months ago, the penitentiary’s director María Daniela Icaza was killed in an armed attack while she was driving home.

Litoral Penitentiary is among five facilities that make up a major prison complex in Guayaquil.

In January, notorious gang leader José Adolfo “Fito” Macías escaped from one of those facilities, in a jailbreak that kicked off a wave of violence across the country.

Following the escape, President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency, deploying the armed forces across the country to crack down on gangs and criminal groups.