At least 68 prisoners were killed and more than two dozen injured in overnight violence at Ecuador's Penitenciaria del Litoral prison, the government announced late Saturday.
The government has blamed disputes between drug trafficking gangs for control of prisons for the violence.
Governor Pablo Arosemena of Guayas province, where Guayaquil is located, said inmates "tried to dynamite a wall to get into pavilion two to carry out a massacre. They also burned mattresses to try to drown (their rivals) in smoke."
"We are fighting against drug trafficking. It is very hard."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ3hUMH5H9M
In this sense, dozens were gathered outside the prison on Saturday afternoon waiting for news of their families and loved ones, who many said they had not heard from since Friday afternoon.
Cristina Monserrat, 58, still has not heard from her younger brother who has been in prison for a year.
"What is happening inside is reprehensible, people killing each other and the saddest thing is they have no conscience," Monserrat said. "My brother is alive, my heart tells me so."
Notably, the prison, located in the southern city of Guayaquil, is the same where 119 inmates were killed late September in the country's worst incident of prison violence in recent history.
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