The prison crisis in Ecuador experienced a new bloodbath this Monday where at least 44 prisoners were massacred and murdered in the Santo Domingo prison de los Tsáchilas, which exceeded 400 inmates who died in clashes between rival gangs in just over two years.
If in 2020 there were 46, the violence inside Ecuadorian prisons overflowed in 2021, when 316 inmates perished in different massacres were registered, and this 2022 is on the way to repeat a similar figure by accumulating 64 deaths for the moment.
(Also read: Ecuador is experiencing a new bloodbath after a massacre of prisoners)
This new massacre is the largest of this year 2022, above the previous one, which occurred a month ago in the prison of the southern Andean city of Cuenca, where 20 inmates died and at least 10 others were injured.
Both episodes have the same rival gangs behind them, according to Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo, at a press conference, with an organization called “Los Lobos” as the alleged cause of these massacres by attacking a dissident group that is call “R7”.
What’s behind?
The prison crisis in Ecuador, with hundreds of prisoners murdered in the last two years, serious problems of overcrowding and also impunity, has exposed the complicated labyrinth of a system caught between the pressure of crime and the fragility of a State that it has not been able to gain permanent control of the prisons.
The Government of President Guillermo Lasso, since he began his mandate in May 2021, announced that he wanted to end this violence, although in the time he has been in power he has not yet been able to show encouraging results.
In a recent report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) was emphatic in urging Ecuador to recover internal control of its prisons, give decent conditions to prisoners and develop a crime prevention policy where incarceration is not the main resource.
Thus, the Lasso government took on the challenge of developing a new prison model with the recent implementation of a human rights policy for inmates, a program of pardons for prisoners convicted of minor crimes and a series of investments to multiply the guards and improve infrastructure.
The Executive, which also seeks to link private companies in key aspects of the rehabilitation system, aspires to see the results of its plan in the medium and long term, with the determined collaboration of other State institutions (especially the judicial system) and citizenship itself.
(You can read: Lasso asks to resign from his cabinet on his first year in office)
For Carolina Andrade, a specialist in security issues, Lasso’s vision —which advocates reducing the size of the state— should define priorities so that policies such as security and social rehabilitation are not affected.
He also explained to Efe that the government’s version, which attributes the war between criminal gangs in prisons to the successful campaign against drug trafficking and the seizure of large amounts of drugs, “may be just one component” of the situation.
And it is that, according to her, of the 316 people murdered in 2021 in prisons, 70% had not been sentenced, many under the preventive (provisional) prison regime, and 39% of the deceased were being held for minor crimes. .
a structural problem
Andrade assured that the problem of prisons in Ecuador is rather “structural”, because “there is no greater violence than inequality” in a society that is also facing an economic crisis aggravated by the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic.
The fact that more than 97,000 Ecuadorian emigrants have tried to enter the United States illegally last year, especially through the border with Mexico, is a symptom that the country is facing a structural crisis.
The authorities tend to “stigmatize poverty” but do not increase budgets in social areas. “What kind of future does a poor mother surrounded by violence, where opportunities are increasingly scarce?” she asked herself.
If you invest in the fight against poverty, you could also reduce the chances of young people being recruited by criminal structures, the expert emphasized.
(You can see: Four years without truth: the tragedy of the ‘El Comercio’ team)
The ‘strong hand’ is not enough
Andrade also maintained that the “iron fist” policies have not produced results and he said that proof of this is the fact that large-caliber weapons have been found in prisons with increased police and military guards.
The politicization of institutions and security strategies have also not produced good results, he maintained, criticizing the fact that authorities have insinuated, without presenting evidence, that behind the prison brawls there are alleged opposition interests against the government.
For the expert, the prison crises in Brazil or El Salvador are examples that the “iron hand” is not, by itself, an effective strategy. Comprehensive intervention is required, she stressed.
What is happening is the product of the lack of public policies, concrete plans and programs
For this reason, he suggested accelerating inmate recategorization programs and applying differentiated strategies for prisoners considered highly dangerous.
The fundamental thing, he said, is to achieve the effective presence of the State with public policies aimed at reducing poverty, dismantling criminal structures and not filling prisons for minor crimes.
The debts of Guillermo Lasso
This latest massacre occurred with the president, Guillermo Lasso, outside the country, on the first day of his official visit to Israel, where precisely one of his objectives is to obtain even more support and cooperation from the Israeli government in security matters to confront to the violence of criminal organizations.
“We will not give in to the mafias. Our commitment to restore order in the prisons is firm,” wrote Lasso from Israel to announce the immediate transfer of six prisoners identified by the authorities as the alleged leaders and responsible for the massacre in Santo Sunday.
But experts agree that the Lasso government has had multiple failures in handling the prison crisis.
(Keep reading: Drug trafficking, a very disturbing challenge for Ecuador)
“The first year in office of the government of Guillermo Lasso who, from the beginning, said that security was one of his priorities,” commented Mauricio Alarcón, executive director of the Fundación Ciudadanía y Desarrollo.
And he added: “However, what is happening is the product of the lack of public policies, plans and concrete programs that allow us, at least, to understand what actions can be implemented to solve the problem.”
In a few words, for Alarcón, the problem is the excess of “diagnoses” and the little action. “The government resorted to easy speech, to understand that insecurity is only the product of drug trafficking and irregular activities, and ordered a state of emergency to mobilize the military.”
What is happening is the product of the lack of public policies, concrete plans and programs
“But the situation is so critical that, despite this, we have just had a new massacre in a social rehabilitation center, a center that is not even considered a priority to calm this situation.”
And how is it explained that the Government has resorted only to this exit? The specialist considered that it is because the vast majority of public officials do not have experience in the State. Their orders, therefore, do not usually consider “how the bureaucracy works.”
“Many believe that a good manager in the private sector is automatically a good leader in the public service. It is not like that and we are seeing it. This is added, in addition, to the fact that the ministries do not act by [miedo al] low level of confidence and popularity of the Government”.
“Improvisation is taking its toll on us,” he said.
This Tuesday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, also said that the latest massacre shows the urgency of reforming the criminal justice and prison system to solve this prolonged prison crisis.
*With information from EFE and El Comercio/Peru (GDA)
American Newspapers Group
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