The Attorney General's Office and Criminalistics began investigations into the murder of the three inmates. | Photo: Twitter (Foto Referencial)
Quito, November 3 (RHC)-- The National Service of Integral Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI) of Ecuador reported on Tuesday the death of three inmates in the Guayas 1 Prison, also known as Penitenciaría del Litoral, due to clashes between rival gangs.
According to press reports, last Monday detonations were registered in pavilions 2 and 3 of the prison, and members of the National Police were forced to intervene. The first shooting confrontation took place in the morning, while the other two occurred at 17H30 and 21H00 local time, according to the management of this penitentiary, which last September 28 was the scene of other clashes in which 119 inmates died.
During Monday's events, one inmate was injured, who received medical attention and returned to his cellblock, and a security agent received serious injuries. Personnel from the State Attorney General's Office and Criminalistics began investigations into the murder of the three inmates.
The prison management informed in the last hours that 16 bladed weapons, two pistols, 102 ammunitions, an explosive device (in the outside of pavilion 3), cash, controlled substances and nine cell phones were seized.
This penitentiary was the scene last September of what is considered one of the worst prison massacres in Latin America, after which the government of President Guillermo Lasso decreed a state of emergency for the prison system.
After that incident, the director of SNAI, Colonel Bolivar Garzon, informed the Ecuadorian National Assembly that the country's prisons have a design capacity for 30,169 inmates, but its population at that time amounted to 38,186, so overcrowding reached 26.57 percent.
During that legislative session, the Minister of Government, Alexandra Vela, also intervened and stated that the increase in violence inside prisons stems from the rivalry between criminal groups to maintain control of drug trafficking in the streets.
