HomeNewsBriefEcuador Inmates Killed Amid Prison Crisis
BRIEF

Ecuador Inmates Killed Amid Prison Crisis

ECUADOR / 20 AUG 2019 BY JUAN CAMILO JARAMILLO EN

A string of inmate deaths after the deployment of extra troops and police to Ecuador's prisons illustrates that sending in reinforcements is not enough to end the country's prison crisis. 

On July 23, the dead body of an inmate known as “El Gato” was found in the Turi prison, in the city of Cuenca in southern Ecuador, El Universo reported.

The previous day, a riot left two inmates dead and a guard injured in a Latacunga prison, some 90 kilometers to the south of Quito.  The violence took place during an inmate uprising in protest of poor prison conditions. 

SEE ALSO: Ecuador News and Profile

Twenty-two people in Ecuador’s detention centers have met with violent deaths in 2019, El Universo reported. Of these, 14 have occurred since President Lenin Moreno declared a state of emergency on May 16, which sent the armed forces to secure the perimeters of all the nation's prisons and the police into jails to provide extra manpower.

InSight Crime Analysis 

The state of emergency alone has not prevented this spate of inmate deaths, highlighting that more needs to be done to tackle the worrying issues facing Ecuador's penitentiary system. 

Following the death of six inmates at the Litoral prison, former Prison Director Alfredo Muñoz said the prisons were a “time bomb.”

According to El Universo estimates, the country's jails are 40 percent over capacity, with 40,006 inmates living in buildings designed to hold up to 28,554 people.

Three gangs -- Los Gorras, Los Cubanos and Los Choneros -- have also mutated into larger criminal structures that are battling to control drug trafficking and other illicit activities on the streets and within a number of the country’s  prisons, according to a report by El Comercio.

As previously reported by InSight Crime, gang conflict intensified after the murder of Los Cubanos’ leader, William Humberto Poveda Salazar, alias “El Cubano,” who was decapitated and burned in a Guayaquil prison on June 11.

In addition, the prison gangs benefit from the flow of drugs, weapons and contraband into the prisons. 

SEE ALSO: The Prison Dilemma: Latin America’s Incubators of Organized Crime

During the first six months of the year, searches of cell blocks yielded 1,552 cellphones, 30 kilograms of drugs, 16 firearms, 163 rounds of ammunition, 2,538 liters of liquor, 5,960 knives, 440 electronic devices and $15,436 in cash, Deputy Interior Minister Patricio Pazmiño reported.

Ecuador is also showing worrying signs of state abandonment of prisons, or wholesale participation in criminal activities. This would bring it closer to the likes of Brazil, El Salvador, and Mexico, where gangs are the de facto rulers of many jails with prison authorities often acting as accomplices.

Ecuador's prisons suffer from a lack of investment and resources while prison guards are overworked and underpaid, both of which facilitate corruption. A prison official previously told InSight Crime that drugs and weapons were moved into the prisons by high-ranking officials and even prison directors.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

PRISONS / 20 SEP 2021

A major operation against one of Puerto Rico's foremost criminal gangs has revealed how this group's control of prisons helped…

ECUADOR / 21 JUL 2022

Ecuador's complicated gang violence has been worsened by the bloody rise of R7, a small-time but brutal gang.

BRAZIL / 2 DEC 2022

Illegal gold mining in the remote Ecuadorian province of Napo has grown at a staggering rate. Environmental crime has grown…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Receives Great Reception

27 MAY 2023

Several of InSight Crime’s most recent articles about Venezuela have been well received by regional media. Our article on Venezuela’s colectivos expanding beyond their political role to control access to…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report Continues

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Paraguay Election Coverage Draws Attention 

5 MAY 2023

InSight Crime looked at the various anti-organized crime policies proposed by the candidates in Paraguay’s presidential election, which was won on April 30 by Santiago Peña. Our pre-election coverage was cited…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in OAS, CARICOM Reports

28 APR 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s work was cited nine times in a new report by the Organization of American States (OAS) titled “The Impact of Organized Crime on Women,…