Ecuador’s Public Prosecutor’s Office reported Friday that it has launched an investigation into the death of the director of the El Inca penitentiary center, Santiago Loza Moscoso, on Thursday in the country’s capital, Quito.
According to the first reports, all the clues point to the death of the director, in office for less than a month, would have been the work of a hitman, reports the Ecuadorian newspaper ‘El Comercio’.
Ecuadorian authorities confirmed on Thursday the death of Loza Moscoso, who was shot by assailants on a motorcycle while driving his own personal vehicle.
Ecuador is the scene of a notorious insecurity in the prison system, which has already left in the last two years more than a dozen massacres with more than 400 deaths.
Clashes between gangs fighting for control of drug trafficking are one of the reasons for this situation.
The country’s government decreed a state of emergency in the entire prison system a few months ago, although the measure does not seem to have had the effect that President Guillermo Lasso had hoped for.
In addition, other measures have been implemented inside the prisons, such as the census of prisoners or artificial intelligence systems.
