Ecuador President Replaces Head Of Prison Service After Mass Riots In Guayaquil Prison

Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso has replaced the head of the national penitentiary service after violent clashes between prisoners in Guayaquil prisons, killed almost 70 people, a decree posted on Monday by the General Secretariat of Communication under the President of Ecuador said on Twitter

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2021) Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso has replaced the head of the national penitentiary service after violent clashes between prisoners in Guayaquil prisons, killed almost 70 people, a decree posted on Monday by the General Secretariat of Communication under the President of Ecuador said on Twitter.

On Saturday, 68 people were killed and 25 others were injured during a riot in an Ecuadorian jail in the city of Guayaquil, the same facility where more than 100 died in riots in late September. On Sunday, new clashes broke out prompting deployment of the police and armed forces.

"The head of state ... accepted the resignation of colonel Bolivar Garzon Espinosa from the post of director general of National Service of Comprehensive Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty (SNAI)," the decree says.

Espinosa was in charge of the penitentiary system for 47 days. The management of the department has been transferred to the head of the strategic intelligence center, Fausto Cobo, who had been in charge of SNAI before Espinosa's arrival.

Riots in the penitentiary center in Guayaquil at the end of September claimed the lives of 119 people, and about 80 were injured. At that time, 13 firearms, 1,136 cartridges of various calibers, 250 knives, five grenades, 60 cell phones and 13 Pounds of drugs were seized in prison.

Ecuador's prisons are overloaded. They were built to hold 29,600 inmates, but are now holding about 40,000 prisoners, according to SNAI.