In the early hours of Sunday there was a violent chaos in the prison of El Turi in Ecuador, which left the balance of at least 20 were dead and forced the government led by Guillermo Lasso to send 800 military and police officers in the southern Andean city of Cuenta.

On Sunday night, the Prosecutor’s Office provided the final part of the updated death toll. In addition, the Minister of the Interior, General Patricio Carrillo, provided the frightening detail that at least five of the corpses showed mutilations.

The officer indicated that the bodies found were sent to the forensic center to carry out their respective examinations, in a job that takes “between one and two hours.”

The newspaper Trade collects statements from Carrillo, that although he said there were no incidents inside the prison, he admitted that there were still armed prisoners.

The Secretary of Human Rights, Bernarda Ordóñez, assured that “psychological and psychosocial support” is provided to the relatives of the prisoners, and that the government will help the relatives of the victims retrieve the coffins.

The number of fatal victims rose throughout the day, as authorities managed to move forward with the prison inspection.

Earlier, in statements taken by the AFP news agency, Carrillo asserted that the unrest occurred because “there is an organization that wants to have full power within the center” and “there are some cells that have rebelled.”

“The unrest is out of control and explosions are going on inside the El Turi prison,” he reported after 1:00 pm (3:00 pm in Argentina). Trade on his Twitter account.

The newspaper added that the uniformed men were trying to “control the prisoners with tear gas bombs” and stressed that “the initial number” was “11 killed beheaded.”

Lasso’s government announced in a statement that “800 members of the Police and Armed Forces have been mobilized in the prison to protect it and control acts of violence.” Cuenca is located about 470 kilometers south of Quito.

The National Service for Comprehensive Care for Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders of Ecuador (SNAI) explained that at 1:30 “security protocols were activated” in the prison.

Lasso ordered Secretary Ordóñez to travel to El Turi; the Minister of Defense, Luis Hernández, and the Secretary of Communications, Eduardo Bonilla.

Police said they have “assigned special units” in coordination with SNAI and Armed Forces “to carry out control actions in the event of possible incidents.”

Carrillo warned that “the government will take action to contain irrationality and radicalism within prisons.”

Residents of the penitentiary center confirmed they heard several explosions, such as gunshots and bombs, and they saw how the National Police patrol cars began to arrive.

Family members of the inmates began to gather around the prison, letting them know what was happening over the phone.

Endless Violence in Ecuador’s Prisons

On February 23, 2021, a riot left the same prison 34 prisoners were killed, most of them beheaded and beheaded.

El Turi is one of the largest prisons in Ecuador and last February had 1,708 inmates.

A report from late 2021 was found there 12 failures in security and control systemsaccording to Trade.

At the end of February, the government announced that it would invest 27 million dollars this year in the rehabilitation of prisoners and that prisoners who have served 40% of their sentences will be forgivenas part of a plan to overcome the crisis in the prison system.

Ecuador is facing severe problems in this sector, which showed themselves last year in clashes between gangs inside prisons, which left 331 deadwhich prompted the Executive to impose a 60-day state of emergency.

Of the 65 prisons with a total capacity for approximately 30,000 people, there are currently approximately 39,000 inmates in Ecuador, of which 15,000 have not yet been sentenced.

With information from Telam

DB