(Guayaquil) Violence between prisoners in a high security prison in Ecuador left three dead and one injured on Tuesday, the National Prisons Service (SNAI) said.
“Three detainees died and one injured was transferred”, announced the SNAI in a press release, in this confrontation which took place in the penitentiary of “La Roca”, located in the port of Guayaquil (southwest).
This high-security prison has a capacity of about 150 inmates and housed 23 prisoners, most of them dangerous leaders of rival gangs linked to drug trafficking.
Prison officers, the police and the army activated security protocols after these incidents, which helped to “take back control” of the situation, according to SNAI.
The prison of “La Roca”, or Guayas 3 according to its official name, is in particular the scene of recurring clashes between the “R7” and “Lobos”, which have links with the Mexican cartels of Sinaloa and the Nueva Generación. .
Since February 2021, eight massacres have been recorded in Ecuadorian prisons, with more than 400 inmates killed, most of them dismembered and burned.
In early November, the government organized the transfer of thousands of detainees, triggering a violent offensive by criminal gangs, particularly in the port city of Guayaquil, the epicenter of drug trafficking in Ecuador.