FIFTEEN DEAD AFTER OUTBREAK OF VIOLENCE IN ECUADOR PRISON

BUENOS AIRES, Nov 13 (Bernama-dpa) -- Fifteen people have died and a further 14 were injured in serious clashes between inmates in an Ecuadorian prison, reported German news agency dpa quoting the country's penitentiary authority SNAI on Tuesday. 

The situation in the prison in the port city of Guayaquil, on the Pacific coast, was back under "complete control," the SNAI said, adding that a "significant contingent" of police and military personnel had been deployed to "guarantee safety and prevent further incidents."

The authority added that it would investigate the events.

Violent incidents occur frequently in Ecuador's overcrowded jails, many of which are controlled by criminal syndicates. The security forces often only ensure that the inmates don't escape and largely leave them to their own devices within the walls.

At the beginning of the year, prisoners took dozens of law enforcement officers hostage amid recent violent clashes between criminal gangs and state security forces and only released them after holding them for days.

In September 2021, 118 people died in bloody gang fights in the Guayaquil prison in the worst massacre in the history of the Ecuadorian penal system.

The security situation in Ecuador has recently deteriorated dramatically.

The murder rate of 46.5 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants last year was the highest in the history of the once-peaceful Andean country and one of the highest in Latin America.

Several gangs with links to powerful Mexican cartels are fighting for control of the drug trafficking routes. Ecuador is an important transit country for cocaine from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, which is smuggled to the US and Europe.

--BERNAMA-dpa