Ecuador prison riot leaves 31 dead as gangs war in packed facility
CBSAPR 2023
Ecuador's Constitutional Court has repeatedly undermined Pres. Guillermo Lasso's ability to curb prison violence. From barring the military from operating in prisons to enabling the early release of certain prisoners and rulings preventing guards from carrying weapons, the country's so-called judicial system has played a direct role in this ongoing violence.
While gangs play a fundamental role in prison violence in Ecuador, so does state violence, corruption, overcrowding, and lack of essential services, including wastewater treatment, medical attention, and legal advice. Without reforms to deal with these structural causes of prison violence, penitentiaries will continue operating as schools of criminality that offer their inmates neither rehabilitation nor reintegration.