Grenade Detonation Leaves 11 Injured in Ecuadorian Prison
Police officers enter the Litoral Penitentiary, Guayaquil, 2024. X/ @diariocorreoec
December 4, 2024 Hour: 8:30 am
Two prison guards were arrested on suspicion of providing the grenades to the prisoners.
On Tuesday, at least 11 people were injured, and 11 others were detained following the detonation of three grenades at the Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
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Among the injured are nine inmates, one soldier, and one prison guard, according to Pablo Davila, head of the National Police for Zone 8, which encompasses Guayaquil and its metropolitan area.
The injured were transported to a hospital for medical attention. Simultaneously, prison authorities evacuated staff from the facility in Guayaquil “under strict security protocols.”
The 11 detainees suspected of orchestrating the grenade explosions include seven inmates and two prison guards, who are believed to have provided the explosives to the prisoners involved in the incident, which occurred around 2:30 p.m. local time.
The violence was triggered by two inmates and prompted the Armed Forces and National Police to activate protocols to restore order within the penitentiary.
Since January, Ecuador’s prisons have been under military control after President Daniel Noboa declared an internal armed conflict against criminal groups, labeling them as “terrorist organizations.”
With approximately 6,000 inmates, the Litoral Penitentiary is the largest facility in the Guayaquil prison complex, a network of five prisons housing roughly 12,000 inmates.
This facility has been the site of some of the worst massacres in recent years, part of a wave of criminal violence that has gripped this Andean country since late 2020.
Between 2021 and 2023, over 500 inmates were killed in Ecuadorian prisons, most of them during mass killings resulting from clashes between rival criminal gangs.
The most recent incident occurred on November 12 at the Litoral Penitentiary, leaving 17 dead and 15 injured. Earlier in 2023, another massacre claimed 31 lives over three days at the same prison.
Ecuador is experiencing a crisis, making it the Latin American country with the highest homicide rate. In 2023, it recorded 47.2 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants—eight times the rate in 2016—attributed to the rise of organized crime, primarily involved in drug trafficking, extortion, and illegal mining.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
