Ecuador prison clash leaves at least 15 dead, 20 injured

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — A clash between inmates armed with guns and knives inside the Latacunga prison in central Ecuador has left at least 15 people dead and 20 injured. Authorities attributed the fighting to national and international drug trafficking groups which have turned the Andean nation’s prisons into the scene of repeated massacres as the groups fight for power and drug distribution rights. Ecuador’s national penitentiary service confirmed the death toll in the Latacunga prison. Videos in which gunfire and the screams of inmates can be heard were posted on social media. Some 316 inmates were killed inside Ecuador’s prisons last year, according to the penitentiary service.