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A recent massacre inside Ecuador’s largest and most violent prison is an ominous sign that the country’s multiple criminal organizations are atomizing at a rapid pace as the government’s hardline security crackdown stalls.
The attack happened in the Litoral Penitentiary just outside the coastal city of Guayaquil in the early hours of November 12, when members of a group known as the Duendes (Dwarfs) attacked a rival gang, the Freddy Kruegers.
The perpetrators killed at least 17 prisoners and left more than a dozen injured, according to the National Penitentiary Service (Servicio Nacional de Atención a Personas Privadas de la Libertad – SNAI).
Media reported gunshots during the attack. A grenade and seven guns were found on the prison roof in a police sweep following the incident. Images show the killings were carried out with ferocious brutality, with victims decapitated and disemboweled.
Authorities did not publicly speculate on what motivated the attack, but one organization of prisoners’ families told that the fight was over food. Prison gangs often exert control over food distribution, charging prisoners as much as $20 per day to eat the meals that contractors provide to the Litoral with government tax dollars. There have reportedly been shortages of food in recent weeks.
The fight for this prison economy – one of many ways that gangs make money inside the penitentiary system – occurred in Wing 3, where the Duendes had reportedly aligned with the Trébol Killer, and the Freddy Kruegers had aligned with the Mafia 18.
Other prisoners may have come from other wings to participate in the massacre.
Tensions between the groups had been building for some time, a prisoner in Litoral said: “War was declared in Wing 3 months ago, this is a dispute over territory. The war is moving to the streets“.
By Steven Dudley and James Bargen
Featured Image / Jose Sanchez / AP
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