At least five inmates were killed and three injured in a prison riot in the Ecuadorian capital city of Quito, the National Service for Integrative Care of Adults Deprived of Liberty, which oversees prisons, said.
The riot occurred at the Pichincha N°1 Temporary Detention Center for Men in Quito, known as El Inca prison, due to clashes between two organized crime gangs, the agency said in a statement.
“As a result of these clashes between prisoners, five persons deprived of liberty died and three were injured, who received the attention of a paramedic team of 911 ECU”, the announcement states.
He added that several officers of the Security Forces and Prison Surveillance were beaten while trying to calm the incidents.
“The National Government will not allow organized crime mobsters to terrorize the country,” he said.
For his part, the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, through Twitter, noted the work of the law enforcement forces who managed to regain control of the prison.
“We defeat organized crime. Thanks to @PoliciaEcuador we have control of the Inca prison. Ecuador wants peace and the state security forces are confronting narco-criminal gangs to achieve it,” Lasso wrote on the social network.
The clashes started on Monday afternoon, according to the alarm received by the Integrated Security Service 911 ECU, so the relevant protocols were activated with the support of the Police and Armed Forces contingents.
Quito Police Commander Victor Herrera told reporters that specialized units intervened in the prison and regained control of the 14 existing pavilions after a few hours, in addition to the control of bladed weapons and narcotics.
According to official statistics, clashes between inmates of rival drug gangs have been ongoing in Ecuadorian prisons since February 2021 and have left around 400 inmates dead.
According to the government, this is due to power disputes in the prison.
