Ecuador : Inmates across 6 prisons take 57 guards, officers hostage in an alarming development

It seems that the battle of the South American nation Ecuador in controlling gangs and gang wars is perhaps taking a toll on the country.

Yesterday, Ecuador’s capital Quito, was rocked by attacks with grenades and two car bombs, followed hours later by inmates in six prisons taking hostage 57 prison guards and police officers.

The wave of attacks was an apparent show of force by organised crime gangs that claimed no victims, while the uprising in the prisons was believed to be a riposte to a police sweep of jails to confiscate weapons the day before.

The mass hostage-taking came a day after hundreds of soldiers and police officers carried out an operation to search for weapons, ammunition and explosives in one of the country's main penitentiaries, in the Andean city of Latacunga in the south.

But authorities later said the incident was in protest against the transfer of inmates to other prisons.

An inmate transfers earlier on Wednesday, aimed at preventing gang clashes, may have been the trigger.

Initial reports suggested that all hostages were taken at one prison in the city of Cuenca, but later, the state office in charge of prisons, clarified that the action was spread across six prisons, without identifying which ones.

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