On 12 November, 68 inmates were killed in violence which erupted at Penitenciaría del Litoral, the main prison in Guyaquil (Guyas province).
Analysis:
The Penitenciaría del Litoral has seen numerous massacres over the last year, including the worst in Ecuador’s history in September, when 116 inmates were killed. This led President Guillermo Lasso to declare a 60-day state of exception in the prison system, which was watered down by the constitutional court (CC) in early November. Lasso turned on the CC on 13 November, accusing it of interfering in his efforts to restore order. That received a sharp response from the court, which accused Lasso of failing to address the root causes of the violence.
- Guayas governor Pablo Arosemena said on 12 November that the latest outbreak of violence at the prison began when an imprisoned gang leader was released, leaving a power vacuum that another gang exploited to attempt to “vanquish” its rivals in a “total massacre”. Arosemena did not name the gangs involved, although previous killings at the prison have been the result of tensions between Los Lobos and Los Choneros, which are allied to rival Mexican drug trafficking organisations seeking control of the port at Guayaquil.
- The massacre triggered a public spat between President Lasso and the CC, with Lasso tweeting on 13 November that “we need better constitutional tools to protect the population [and] restore order in prisons,” and warning that “the security forces are unable to act.” This statement relates to the CC’s decision on 4 November to water down the state of exception that Lasso declared in the prison system following the September massacre (reducing it from 60 days to 30 days), and its imposition of conditions on a broader state of exception decreed on 18 October to tackle mounting crime.
- The CC in turn accused Lasso of “seeking to evade his own responsibilities” and stated that prison violence “requires concrete and structural actions, different to those adopted under a state of exception.”
- The director of Ecuador’s prisons authority (SNAI), Bolívar Fernando Garzón, and the head of the army’s joint command, Jorge Cabrera, both resigned following the massacre.
Looking Ahead: Lasso will meet today (15 November) with the presidents of Ecuador’s high courts, national assembly president Guadalupe Llori, military commanders, and Attorney General Diana Salazar to discuss a joint strategy to reduce prison violence.