Ecuador authorities convened to Assembly over prison riot

Quito, Oct 5 (Prensa Latina) Ecuadorian authorities will appear before the Audit and Political Control Commission at the National Assembly (Parliament) on Wednesday to report on the recent riot at Cotopaxi prison in which 16 prisoners died.

October 5, 2022
10:50

Interior Minister Juan Zapata; General Pablo Ramirez, director of the National Service of Integral Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI); and Police General Commander Fausto Salinas are summoned this Wednesday.

According to official data, in addition to the riot’s dead, 43 other inmates were injured.

The violent events in that prison, located in Latacunga, 100 kilometers from Quito, began on Monday and Leandro Norero, alias El Patrón, considered one of the major drug traffickers in the country and was detained for money laundering, was among the dead.

In 2021, the Cotopaxi prison was the scene of two more massacres, one in February, where 79 inmates died, and another in July, when 22 inmates lost their lives.

Given the crisis in the penitentiary system, the Government initiated a pacification process without results so far, as the massacres continue, according to the authorities, due to disputes among criminal gangs.

pgh/iff/oda/avr