GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, Nov 14, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - Prison inmates from rival
gangs in Ecuador fought each other with guns, explosives and blades in a
bloodbath that left at least 68 dead in the same prison where a riot in
September claimed 119 lives, officials said Saturday.

  Hours after the government said it had regained control of the prison in
Guayaquil, President Guillermo Lasso's spokesman said inmates from rival
gangs tied to drug trafficking rings were fighting again in a new surge in
violence.

  In the initial riot that began Friday night prisoners fought with
"savagery," said Pablo Arosemena, governor of the province of Guayas where
the prison is located.

  The riot began around 7:00 pm Friday (0001 GMT) when prisoners tried to
enter Block 2 of the jail where their rivals were held, firing gunshots,
detonating explosives and swinging machetes, and prompting police to move in.

  At least 68 prisoners were killed and another 25 were wounded, according a
statement which the Ecuador Prosecutor's Office posted on Twitter.

  In the new outbreak of fighting, inmates from two other blocks were
attacking each other, said presidential spokesman Carlos Jijon.

  Lasso has appealed to civil society groups to try to establish contact with
prisoners and end the bloodshed, Jijon said,

  Officials said the violence started when 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, Arosemena said.

  He said their goal was "to go in and carry out a total massacre."

  Earlier Saturday, police officers in riot gear were seen climbing up the
blood-stained prison walls, while the body of an inmate in an orange prison
jumpsuit lay on the roof of the jail encircled by barbed wire.

  Images posted on social networks, whose authenticity has not been confirmed
by the authorities, showed a pile of bodies in a night-time prison courtyard
being consumed by flames while inmates standing nearby beat the bodies with
sticks.

  In another video, a prisoner from the block that was being attacked says,
"We are locked in our pavilion. They want to kill us all."

  "Please share this video. Please help us!" the inmate implores, as repeated
bangs are heard the background.

  Dozens of people gathered outside the prison gates Saturday morning,
fainting or weeping as they tried to learn the fate of their loved ones
inside.

  "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.

  A group of women with one cell phone shouted prisoners' names to an inmate
who was inside the prison and on the line, hoping to know if those men were
still alive.

  "Here there are relatives from block two and they need to know about the
boys," the woman holding the phone said.

  A crackly voice was heard from the phone but the signal was spotty and then
there was just silence.

  At a coroner's office in the city, Felix Gonzalez showed up holding his
imprisoned son's ID card and asked if his body was there. "It is not fair for
him to die for stealing a cell phone," Gonzalez told AFP.

  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 in
Guayaquil, a facility that was designed for 5,300 inmates, but houses 8,500.

  But even after a crackdown in the wake of the September 28 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, President Guillermo Lasso declared
a 60-day state of emergency in a bid to tame Ecuador's surging drug-related
unrest.

  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.