Gang violence leaves deadly trail in Ecuador

Quito, The Gulf Observer: Armed attackers have killed three women guards outside a jail in southwestern Ecuador, while in a separate attack, two people in a small boat were gunned down, according to authorities.

The massive prison complex in Ecuador’s biggest city, Guayaquil, is notorious for massacres committed by rival gangs vying for power within the penitentiary.

Police said on Twitter that reinforcements “have been deployed in order to find those responsible for this criminal act.”

The national prison administration authority, SNAI, confirmed the deaths to journalists on Thursday.

The attacks were the latest mayhem in Ecuador likely linked to gang wars.

In the village of Posorja at the delta of the river leading to Guayaquil, armed attackers fired on a small boat, killing two people and wounding a third, said Edison Rodriguez, the area’s police chief.

On Tuesday, around 30 armed men killed nine people in a fishing village in the northwest in an attack Interior Minister Juan Zapata blamed on a territorial fight between gangs.

Security forces arrested three men in connection with the shooting.