QUITO, Ecuador 鈥� Ecuador experienced its deadliest prison riots ever this week when seemingly
Hundreds of police officers and military personnel converged on the prisons after the unrest began Monday night in the maximum-security wings as rival gangs fought for leadership.
President Len铆n Moreno, whose term ends in May, on Wednesday said he will ask other South American countries for help to tackle the crisis in Ecuador's prisons and acknowledged the system is deficient and lacks financial resources.
Inmates in two prisons attempted to keep fighting Wednesday despite heavy police response. Television footage showed smoke billowing from one of the facilities.
Some 70% of the country鈥檚 prison population lives in the
鈥淓cuadorian prisons are overpopulated, as they always have been, as are prisons in nearly every country,鈥� said Mark Ungar, a professor of political science at Brooklyn College in the U.S., who has researched prisons in Latin America.
In addition 鈥渋s this amazingly repetitive practice of putting members of different gangs within the same facility, which is kind of cardinal rule No. 1 not to do because their practices continue within the prisons,鈥� he added.
鈥淪o, the very fact of putting them together is a recipe for violence.鈥�
Ungar said inadequate staffing in Latin American prisons limits the ability of authorities to patrol inmate interactions and makes it practically impossible to separate prisoners sufficiently to prevent violence.
Ecuador鈥檚 prisons were designed for some 27,000 inmates but house about 38,000. Their maximum-security areas tend to house inmates linked to killings, drug trafficking, extortion and other major crimes.
Authorities have said this week鈥檚 clashes were precipitated by authorities鈥� search for weapons.
Television footage on Tuesday showed some prisoners jumping from high walls and others trying to force open prison doors. Prisons Director Edmundo Moncayo said then that two groups were trying to gain 鈥渃riminal leadership within the detention
Ricardo Camacho, a security analyst and former prisons undersecretary, said the clashes are a purely domestic issue.
鈥淭hey are disputes between national gangs that seek to monopolize the power that was left vacant in the prisons by the death of a criminal leader in December, and that has given way to this massacre with violence never before seen,鈥� Camacho said. 鈥淭here are prisoners beheaded, dismembered, their hearts removed.
鈥淭he prisoners had several hours to do what they wanted, and when the police arrived, they did not put up much resistance,鈥� he added.
Over the past three decades, Latin American prisons have seen fires, riots, massacres and other forms of violence. Ungar said conditions have not improved because there is no political incentive to improve the facilities.
鈥淭here is such a strong anti-crime ... political momentum to arrest people and have them sit in prison, whether ... they鈥檙e guilty or not,鈥� Ungar said. 鈥淪o, no politician, no official has an interest or incentive to improve that because it doesn鈥檛 benefit the political game.鈥�
Moreno said in a speech to the nation that he had ordered the Ministry of Finance to allocate resources needed to address the issue and said the military will help control arms, explosives and ammunition around the prisons for as long as it is necessary.
鈥淭here are dark forces that threaten our coexistence. That cannot be allowed鈥� Moreno said. He promised "to fight the battle against drug trafficking until the last day of my administration.鈥�
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Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.
Regina Garcia Cano And Gonzalo Solano, The Associated Press
