Fierce fighting by armed prisoners within Ecuador’s Litoral Penitentiary in the city of Guayaquil has killed at least 68, the BBC reports. The intensely dangerous prisons in Ecuador are notorious for gang-related violence, with more than 300 inmates dying so far this year around the country. Prisoners regularly smuggle weapons including guns and explosives into some prisons and have tunneled to other prison wards to fight rivals. In recent riots, some inmates were found decapitated. Ecuador’s military has been called in to secure the perimeter of the Litoral prison, but have so far not been deployed inside to stop the riots.
