Clashes broke out last Wednesday night at the Guayaquil penitentiary, in southwestern Ecuador, the scene of repeated incidents with at least 180 people killed in the last five months, an official source informed.
"Clashes" were recorded between inmates in different wards of the Waiyas 1 prison, Ecuador's prison service (SNAI) said via Twitter.
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The agency added that it is coordinating with the police and armed forces "the entry of elite forces" into the prison to "enhance security".
Gunfire and explosions could be heard as far as outside the prison, a French Press Agency photographer at the scene noted, and also spoke of extensive use of tear gas.
The prison in Guayaquil turned into a theater of violent riots and massacres with some 320 dead in 2021.
On September 29, 119 prisoners were killed. It was the worst prison massacre in Latin American history. Inmates were dismembered, beheaded, burned alive.
President Guillermo Lasso has declared a state of exception in all the country's prisons, ordering the army to be deployed as well.
In mid-November, 62 other prisoners were killed in the same prison when new clashes broke out between gangs linked to drug trafficking.
Ecuador counts 65 prisons, with a nominal capacity of 30,000 places, but they hold some 39,000 people, including some 15,000 who have not been charged.
Source: Proto Thema
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