Ecuador: Inmates hold hundreds of hostages to protest prison conditions
QUITO, Feb 16 (AFP) - Ecuador's government Monday tried but failed to negotiate the release of hundreds of people being held hostage by nearly 900 inmates protesting what they described as deplorable conditions in the country's jails.
National Prison Security director Marco Morales said after three hours of discussions that talks broke down with the inmates, who are demanding a meeting with Interior Minister Raul Baca.
Washington Grueso, a leader of the men's prison revolt here, said Sunday inmates were holding 470 people -- 70 men, 280 women and 120 children -- to protest overcrowding and other grim conditions.
However, Morales told AFP the inmates were holding 321 people, including 218 Ecuadoran women, 51 women mostly from Colombia and Peru, one Italian woman and one Venezuelan woman.
The 876 inmates "do not appear" to be armed and no one has been injured, said Morales, who spoke from inside the prison which was designed to hold 600.
An Ecuadoran Red Cross team was given permission to enter the facility on a hill overlooking the capital to check on the health of hostages and inmates.
Most of the hostages were relatives of the inmates who had come to visit jailed family members. Grueso claimed there had been no violence but did not offer further details about the hostages' welfare.
Grueso said authorities failed to keep a pledge to speed up the cases of more than 1,400 people who have been held without trial for more than a year, overcrowding and the lack of potable water at the main jail in Guayaquil, on the coast southwest of Quito.
Grueso said inmates at prisons in the cities of Ibarra and Tulcan had joined in the protest but did not say if they were holding hostages as well.
The 350 women inmates at the El Inca prison in Quito meanwhile launched a hunger strike to protest conditions but were not holding hostages.
Prison officials have said they are seeking ways to increase the correctional system's capacity. Ecuador's jails have a 6,000-person capacity but are packed with 12,500 people.
On January 15, the government declared a state of emergency in the prison system amid serious overcrowding that has sparked riots and other violence, and said 1,462 inmates who had been held without sentence for over a year would be freed.
Overcrowding in the prisons has contributed to an escalation in prison violence, including reports that some inmates have engaged in self-flagellation to gain sympathy from prison officials.
Baca urged patience and said the government was still working on those releases.
"The government understands that overcrowding is a delicate and stressful situation but the fact is we are building three new jails to which 800 inmates will be transferred, so we will reduce the problem as well as we can," Baca said.
"We need time to build new prisons in cities such as Santo Domingo, Archidona and Guayaquil, and reduce overcrowding in those establishments," Baca acknowledged.
Baca said the month long state of emergency could help improve the overcrowding by allowing more state resources to be diverted to the prison system.