Over 50 dead and 12 injured after clashes at same Ecuadorian prison where a riot left more than 100 dead in September

After that incident, Ecuador declared a state of emergency throughout the prison system for the second time this yr amid rising violence. That state of emergency has been in impact since September 30. The state additionally promised to dedicate $24 million to the prisons system in the course of the state of emergency.

Following the lethal September riot, Ecuador started working in October on pardoning and commuting 1000's of sentences in order to liberate house in the nation's chronically overcrowded prisons.

In July, Eduardo Moncayo, then-prison chief, instructed native media that the Litoral Penitentiary was essentially the most overcrowded in the nation, with more than 9,000 inmates in a facility deliberate for five,000.

Such overcrowding is the first explanation for violence, Douglas Durán, director of the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime (ILANUD), instructed CNN.

Ecuador's prison inmates are additionally typically stunningly well-armed. In Guayaquil, they deployed computerized weapons and even grenades. At the Ibarra penitentiary, prison guards instructed CNN they feared being overwhelmed by a rising variety of convicts with entry to weaponry from machetes to explosives.

During the investigation into the September bloodbath, authorities seized weapons, ammunition, 25 bladed weapons, three explosive gadgets and numerous medication, in line with SNAI. A video launched by Ecuador Police captured safety personnel retrieving a few of the objects from what seems to be one of many prison cells. The clip confirmed handguns wrapped in plastic, numerous knives, cell telephones, packages of ammunition, and totally different packages of medication.