At least 68 inmates have died in clashes between rival gangs at a prison in Ecuador, officials said on Saturday, the latest unrest in the same jail that was the scene of a September riot which left 119 prisoners dead.
Inmates at the prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador's biggest city of about two million, attacked members of an opposing clan with guns, explosives and blades, authorities said.
Pablo Arosemena, governor of the province of Guayas where the prison is located, said there was a deplorable "level of savagery". He said there was an intense gun battle near the gates of the prison.
The riot began around 7pm Friday (local time) when prisoners tried to enter block two of the jail where their rivals were held, firing gunshots, detonating explosives and swinging machetes, and prompting police to move in.
"These events are the result of a territorial dispute between criminal gangs inside the penitentiary," police commander General Tannya Varela said.
Some 68 prisoners were killed and another 25 were wounded in the fighting, according a statement which the Ecuador Prosecutor's Office posted on Twitter.
An intervention by police to try to restore order "saved lives", Mr Arosemena said.
But authorities did not explain why the fighting went on for hours before authorities regained control.
One of the gangs inside the prison, the Tiguerones, was left without their leader because he was released after serving part of his sentence for stealing auto parts. Other groups, sensing weakness in the Tiguerones with that man gone, went on the attack to try to crush that gang, Mr Arosemena said.
He said their goal was "to go in and carry out a total massacre".
Dozens of people gathered outside the prison gates on Saturday morning, weeping and trying to learn the fate of their loved ones inside, as police and soldiers stood guard nearby.
"They are human beings, help them", read a banner held by one of the families, held back by a deployment of police and soldiers supported by a tank.
Berta Yago, 51, said her nephew was attacked in the leg with a machete. Sobbing, she said, "I would like someone to help me get him out" before it was too late.
A relative of an inmate cries as she waits for news about her loved one after a riot at the Guayas 1 prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on 13 November, 2021. Source: AFP via Getty Images
In a tweet, President Guillermo Lasso offered "my sincere condolences to the families who have lost loved ones".
Prisoners in the cities of Cuenca and Latacunga are refusing to eat out of solidarity with inmates in Guayaquil, the agency that runs the penitentiary system said.
More than 300 prisoners have been killed this year in Ecuador's criminal detention system, where thousands of inmates tied to drug gangs square off in violent clashes that often turn into riots.
September's unrest was one of the worst prison massacres in Latin American history, and the latest deadly violence in Guayaquil only reaffirmed the broken state of Ecuador's jails.
Rival drug gangs have been waging a bloody feud in the Guayas 1 Prison, a facility that was designed for 5,300 inmates, but houses 8,500.
But even after a crackdown in the wake of the 28 September tragedy that killed 119, the unrest has persisted, with at least 15 more inmates dying prior to Friday's deadly burst of violence.
Two weeks after the September disaster, Mr Lasso declared a 60-day state of emergency in a bid to tame Ecuador's surging drug-related unrest.
He also named a new defence minister in part to address the massive prisons crisis.
Violence has spiked dramatically in recent months in Ecuador, where the economy is ailing.
Between January and October this year, the country registered almost 1,900 homicides, compared to about 1,400 in all of 2020, according to the government.
