Guayaquil Regional Prison | Ecuador: one dead and four injured after riot

Three prisoners died and another six injured is the final balance left by the riot that occurred on Wednesday night at the Regional Prison of Guayaquiloccurred while in Ecuador A state of emergency is in force due to “internal armed conflict” declared by the Government against organized crime gangs.

He National Service of Comprehensive Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the State penitentiary agency, this Thursday raised the number of deceased prisoners to three after counting the prisoners.

The riots within the Guayaquil Regional officially named as Guayas Social Rehabilitation Center Number 4, also left six prisoners injured, of whom five returned to prison after receiving timely medical attention. However, one inmate remains hospitalized.

The disturbances inside the prison began late at night, in moments of tension where explosions were heard from inside the prison, as well as fires caused by inmates burning mattresses, according to several videos posted on social networks. .

To the Police and to the Armed forces It took them around four hours to regain internal control of the Regional Guayaquil which is part of the prison complex of the province of Guayas where five prisons are located that house around 12,000 prisoners.

Apparently the prisoners were protesting the treatment of the military during the presence of the Armed Forces inside the prison, during the militarization of Ecuadorian prisons under the framework of the “internal armed conflict” decreed against criminal gangs since the beginning of the year.

According to the SNAI the inmates Ronal G. and Stalin G. They have been identified as those allegedly responsible for inciting an alteration of the internal order of the center, for which the two prisoners were placed at the disposal of the Ecuadorian Justice to be prosecuted for the crime of terrorism.

Family distress

Early this Thursday, relatives of the inmates stationed outside the prison carrying white balloons demanded information about their relatives and, in protest, threw water at the military trucks present in the area.

Armed soldiers remained outside the prison during the day, while some relatives of the prisoners demanded information and to be able to visit them. Relatives carried signs that read: “Paz”, “Do not abuse your rights” o “they are paying their penalty“, among others.

Patricia Pluas mother of one of the detainees, expressed her concern to EFE “for the abuse they are receiving” the prisoners since, last January, the state of emergency and the internal armed conflict were decreed, as a measure to stop the growing wave of violence at that time.

“Two months in underwear”

“For two months they were naked, with only the inside, and sleeping on the floor, with only one meal a day. Our family members are sick, apart from the fact that there are people who have been sick and have not been allowed the right to have a doctor, medicine from their family.“he said outside the jail.

Therefore, he commented that last night’s riot was because the inmates “They are already fed up with so much abuse”.

Pluas asked the president, Daniel Noboa That “sensitive“to stop the”abuse”, but he considered it positive that the prisons have intervened so that there is no more extortion among the prisoners.

During the militarization of prisons, several organizations have denounced human rights violations by the Armed Forces, an accusation that the military establishment has always flatly rejected, arguing that its actions comply with legality and human rights.

Prison dominated by ‘Los Choneros’

The Guayaquil Regional Prison It has been one of the most intervened by the Police and the Armed Forces during the state of emergency, with recurring operations to seize weapons and objectives prohibited from the prison population.

The drug trafficker escaped from this prison between the end of December and the beginning of January. José Adolfo Macías Villamar (‘Issue‘), leader of the criminal gang ‘The Choneros‘, who was serving a 34-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, illicit association y homicide.

Until before the start of the state of emergency, ´Los Choneros´, the largest and oldest criminal gang in Ecuador had control over the interior of the prison, where they charged prisoners fees for the type of cell they used and also for food, among other elements of a broad extortion network, according to witnesses.