Ecuador: Families And Detainees At Risk After Massacre

According to the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDH), an estimated 600 people have died in prisons in Ecuador from 2019 to the present. Ecuador has been living through a sustained crisis in its penitentiary system and there have been no major structural measures taken to resolve the situation. 

On 24 July, President Guillermo Lasso emitted Executive Decree, 823 which declared a state of emergency in all of Ecuador´s prisons, allowing for armed forces and police to enter prisons. This is not the first time armed forces and police have entered prisons in response to massacres. 

According to local human rights groups on the ground, investigative authorities are failing to properly carry out their duties, with forensic services delaying in properly identify bodies and remains of those deceased and families receiving distressing and confusing information on the fate of their loved ones. 

In addition, according to information received by Amnesty International, health services inside Ecuador´s prisons have been practically non-functional since at least 2022. The Ministry of Health no longer provides doctors stationed inside del Litoral prison, which houses over 5,000 prisoners. Those wounded during the massacre of 22 July were transported, after significant delays, to external health posts with the help of emergency services. 

In 2022, the UN Sub-Committee for the Prevention of Torture (SPT) carried out a country visit to Ecuador and will shortly provide the Ecuadorian government with their final report. The government has the option to publish the results of the report.