Signs abounded that deadly Ecuador prison attack was coming

By ALLEN PANCHANA and GONZALO SOLANO
Associated Press

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — The signs that an attack was imminent inside the largest prison in Ecuador’s coastal city of Guayaquil could not have been clearer. There had been talk among inmates of the Litoral Penitentiary for days that a group was going to attack another. Then, Friday morning, police arrested three men trying to smuggle two rifles, five handguns, three grenades, sticks of dynamite and ammunition into the lockup.  Hours later police announced what the prisoners inside the jail already knew: The three men belonged to a prison gang that was stockpiling weapons. Late Friday, a brutal attack was launched that lasted for hours into early Saturday, leaving 68 inmates dead.