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Clash between rival gangs kills 44 inmates in an Ecuadorean prison
NPR Online NewsNov 25, 2021
The Facts
Ecuador's Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo announced on Tues. that investigation teams have found human remains belonging to 12 dismembered bodies as violence erupted on Mon. at Bellavista prison in Santo Domingo, 43 miles away from the capital city of Quito.
The death toll was corrected from the previously reported 13 inmate deaths. However, officials expect more bodies to be recovered in the cell-by-cell search.
The Spin
Establishment-critical narrative
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.
Pro-establishment narrative
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 to act in this crisis.
