QUITO — At least 21 prisoners were killed and several more injured in riots on Wednesday night in two prisons in Ecuador, the Attorney General’s Office said on Thursday.
The incidents took place in the prisons in the provinces of Guayas and Cotopaxi, where hours later security agents and prison guards, together with elite groups of the National Police, regained control of the prisons.
The Attorney General’s Office said on its official Twitter account that it had “gathered evidence and started an investigation after the confrontations yesterday (Wednesday) inside the Guayaquil (provincial capital of Guayas) prison, which left 8 prisoners dead and 3 policemen wounded.” In another post, it added that it had “removed 13 bodies after the clashes registered yesterday inside the Cotopaxi prison. The bodies were taken to the Forensic Center of Ambato.”
The National Police said on Thursday via Twitter that it is carrying out simultaneous operations with its preventive, investigative and intelligence units to recapture the inmates who escaped from Cotopaxi prison, with 61 prisoners recaptured so far. This was the second large-scale prison riot in the South American country this year, after one in February in three prisons, which resulted in 79 inmates killed and scores wounded, including police officers.
