AT least 15 police and soldiers were wounded yesterday in the latest prison riot to hit Ecuador, officials said, as the country is gripped by violence blamed on organised crime groups waging a deadly drug war.

The 15 were injured while trying to put down an uprising at the infamous Guayas 1 prison in the southwestern port city of Guayaquil, said Guillermo Rodriguez, director of the SNAI prison authority.

A source at SNAI who asked not to be named told AFP that the police officers were confronted by inmates with guns and explosives.

Some 1,300 police took part in the prison assault, said General Victor Zarate, a police commander.

Explosions were heard coming from within the prison until mid-afternoon, when they ceased. Drones flew overhead.

An unknown number of soldiers also participated, and wounded soldiers were carried out to aid stations set up outside the overcrowded prison, which holds 6,900 inmates. 

Ecuador, once a relatively peaceful neighbour of major cocaine producers Colombia and Peru, has seen a wave of violent crime that authorities blame on turf battles between rival gangs with ties to Mexican cartels. 

President Guillermo Lasso, who declared a state of emergency and nightly curfews in the western provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas on Tuesday, tweeted yesterday that his government will quell the violence.

“This government will not surrender to narco-terrorists; in this country, they will not impose their will,” Lasso tweeted along with photos of inmates lying face down in a prison yard.    

Civilians have increasingly been caught up in the bloodshed that has claimed more than 60 police lives since last year.  

Hundreds of inmates have died in Ecuador’s overcrowded prisons since February last year – many beheaded or burned as the gang war is waged also behind bars – especially at Guayas 1.

Widespread corruption among guards allows inmates to obtain guns and explosives, among other contraband.

In attacks Tuesday, five police officers and a civilian were killed. Groups armed with weapons including car bombs hit more than 18 targets in the two provinces, including police and gas installations, a clinic – where a civilian was critically wounded – and a bus terminal.  

Prisoners at a facility in Esmeraldas also took hostage eight guards on Tuesday to protest the inmate transfer, but later freed them. In the same city on Monday, two headless bodies were found hanging from a pedestrian bridge.

Tuesday’s attacks were said to be in response to a mass transfer of inmates from the Guayas 1 prison, which is largely in the control of gangs.

Clashes at the prison on Wednesday left two inmates dead and six wounded. 

Ecuador has gone from being a drug transit route in recent years to an important distribution centre in its own right. 

The United States and Europe are the main destinations of drugs from Latin America. 

The murder rate in Ecuador nearly doubled in 2021 to 14 per 100,000 inhabitants, and reached 18 per 100,000 between January and October this year, according to official data. 

In 2021, law enforcement seized a record 210 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine. So far this year’s seizures total 160 tons. – AFP, November 4, 2022.