FILE PHOTO: Family members of inmates stand outside the Cotopaxi No 1 penitentiary where several people have been killed and injured during a riot, in Latacunga, Ecuador October 4, 2022. REUTERS/Karen Toro/File Photo
QUITO/GUAYAQUIL (Reuters) - Gangs operating inside Ecuador's prisons are taking advantage of state abandonment to expand their power, extorting inmates for access to services and threatening their lives with violence, prisoners' families and human rights groups say.
The prison system in the South American country has faced structural problems for decades, but jail violence has soared since late 2020, killing at least 400 people in frequent confrontations, which have drawn the concern of the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
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