A confrontation between rival gangs of the Number 1 Center for the Deprivation of Liberty in Guayaquil, Ecuador, left at least 24 dead prisoners and 48 injured this Tuesday.
“The incident would have started due to fights between criminal gangs, in a downtown pavilion penitentiary, “said the National Service of Comprehensive Attention to Personnel for Adult Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI) on Tuesday on its Twitter account.
Fausto Buenaño, commander of the Zone 8 Police , based in Guayaquil, detailed that the fighting gangs were seeking to take control of a prison pavilion.
Detonations of firearms and explosions in several pavilions triggered the alerts from the authorities .
“Tactical and operational units of the National Police activated the operation security and entered the Penitentiary Center ”, detailed the SNAI.
Commander Buenaño told local media that during the intervention, the agents found corpses with bullet holes and the effects of grenades in the pavilions of the penitentiary .
The wounded received medical attention outside the prison.
Under control
For the afternoon of this Tuesday, Pablo Arosemena, governor of the province of Guayas, where the prison is located, said that the authorities had already regained control of the prison.
“Units of order Police tactics have managed to restore order, ”said the official.
In addition, the Ecuadorian police carried out a search of the prison, in which they found “a rifle, a firearm, 18 edged weapons, 102 ammunition, drugs and more prohibited objects ”, as detailed by the agency on Twitter.
This is the third riot that has been registered in a jail in Ecuador so far from 2021.
The previous two occurred in February and July and left 79 and 22 dead, respectively.
The organization Human Rights Watch asked the government of Ecuador to investigate and identify those responsible of violence in prisons.
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