Local media unofficially reported the deaths of seven inmates as elite Intervention and Rescue Group (GIR) teams enter the detention center.
Videos on social networks also show how the uniformed men passed through the doors of the institution in tanks and with long guns.
The National Service for Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the agency responsible for the country’s prisons, told the press that it was “reviewing what happened before making an official statement.”
This new violent incident in this prison occurred after President Guillermo Lasso, on September 21, extended for another 30 days the state of emergency in the country’s prisons that came into force on July 24.
Under this provision, the Armed Forces and the National Police carried out searches and interventions and seized thousands of ammunition and firearms in various prisons.
Since 2020, there have been riots in Litoral Prison and other Ecuadorian prisons, leaving more than 450 prisoners dead.
The government attributes this situation to clashes between rival gangs vying for control of detention centers.
Ecuador is suffering from a crisis of violence and insecurity in prisons and also on the streets, where the latest official figures put the number of violent deaths at nearly five thousand and even a presidential candidate has been assassinated.
Ode/avr