At least 22 inmates have been killed and several police injured during riots at two of Ecuador’s largest jails, the Andean nation said, marking the second big deadly wave of prison violence this year.
Special police units were sent to the jails in southern Guayas province and Cotopaxi province, south of Quito, the capital, to quell the violence, the government said on Thursday.
“I want to say to the mafias that seek to threaten this country that they’re mistaken if they think this government will act with the same weakness as the previous ones,” President Guillermo Lasso said in a speech in the city of Latacunga.
Lasso, who was sworn in as president in May, declared a state of emergency in the country’s jail system.
At least 50 people were injured, including some police officers.
