Vehicle Explodes Outside 'La Roca' Prison in Ecuador

In the early hours of Monday, an abandoned vehicle exploded outside the La Roca maximum security prison in the Guayas province.

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"Our specialized personnel are processing the scene and collecting evidence, in order to determine the causes that motivated it," the National Police tweeted.

Witnesses said that two subjects left the vehicle at dawn and then fled on two motorcycles, in which two accomplices were waiting for them. Local media refer to the incident as a "car bomb".

The vehicle was completely destroyed by the explosion, which left several parts of it scattered around. The blast caused no casualties, but it did cause damage to a nearby restaurant.

To the La Roca prison were transferred the gang leaders who provoked confrontations in Cuenca's Turi prison, where twenty inmates died on April 3. It was the first violent act of great magnitude recorded in that prison this year.

On Feb. 2021, the Turi jail registered 33 prisoners killed, most of them decapitated and dismembered. The massacre was part of a simultaneous attack coordinated by criminal gangs in different prisons, which left 78 dead throughout the country.

Over the last two years, nearly 400 prisoners have died in clashes between rival organizations linked to drug trafficking. In Sept. 2021, a drone attack was reported at the Guayaquil prison, causing several explosions but no casualties.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has called on Ecuador to increase prison security personnel and develop a policy that prioritizes crime prevention.