Ecuador battle between prison gangs leaves at least 58 dead

By GONZALO SOLANO
Associated Press

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — A prolonged gun battle between rival gangs inside Ecuador’s largest prison has left at least 58 inmates dead in the latest violence to hit the Litoral Penitentiary, which recently saw the country’s worst prison bloodbath. The fighting lasted for almost eight hours in the lockup in the coastal city of Guayaquil and authorities attributed the fighting early Saturday to prison gangs linked to international drug cartels. Videos circulating on social media showed bodies, some burned, lying on the ground inside the prison. Inmates “tried to dynamite a wall to get into pavilion 2 to carry out a massacre,” said Gov. Pablo Arosemena of Guayas province.