At least 15 killed in latest Ecuador prison riot

At least 15 prisoners have been killed and many wounded in the latest riot to hit Ecuador’s troubled prison system.

Monday’s rioting at the Cotopaxi No 1 jail in Latacunga left “15 people dead and 20 injured,” said a spokesperson for SNAI, the agency that manages Ecuador’s prisons.

More than 400 inmates have died in prison violence since February 2021, which the government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso has attributed to gang warfare over control of territory and drug trafficking routes.

Authorities are working on identifying the bodies, officials said, while Oswaldo Coronel, governor of Cotopaxi province, which includes Latacunga, told reporters security had been restored.

Coronel said 14 of the injured had been taken to hospital.

Latacunga lies about 80km (50 miles) south of the Ecuadorean capital Quito.

In July, 12 prisoners were killed at a prison in Santa Domingo, just two months after violence at the same institution killed 43 in May.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has said Ecuador has no comprehensive policy for its prison system, and inmates endure crowded and dangerous conditions.

Agencies