The Facts
Ecuador's Interior Minister, Patricio Carrillo, said on Mon. that at least 44 inmates were killed in a clash between rival local gangs. This comes little more than a month after another prison riot resulted in 20 deaths.
The riot broke out in the maximum security wing of the Social Bellavista rehabilitation center in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, around 150 km west of the capital Quito.
The Spin
Narrative A
Ecuadorian authorities must expand their efforts to fix the national prison system's structural issues. The prisons have been out of control and overcrowded for more than a decade, forcing the government to seek more effective long-term solutions.
Narrative B
Deadly violence in Ecuador's prisons is connected to conflict between gangs associated with Mexican cartels. Pres. Guillermo Lasso has been trying to counter the surge of violence, but his hands have been tied by Constitutional Court rulings that have limited his emergency powers in this crisis.
