A relative of an inmate grabs a fence outside the Centro de Privacion de Libertad Zona 8 prison where riots broke out in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador: At least 75 inmates died Tuesday and several were injured in riots blamed on gang rivalry at three jails in Ecuador's overcrowded prison system, authorities said.
As security forces battled to regain control, distraught family members waited desperately for news outside the prison in Ecuador's western port city of Guayaquil, where officials said 21 died.
Another 33 died at the prison in Cuenca in the south and eight in Latacunga in the center of the South American country, according to Edmundo Moncayo, director of the government's SNAI prisons management body.