Ecuador plans more mega-prisons for gang members: minister

Ecuador plans to build more mega-prisons to combat a surge in drug trafficking which has caused homicide rates to soar, Interior Minister John Reimberg told AFP on Tuesday.

The South American country is attempting to deal with a wave of drug violence by constructing mega-prisons as part of President Daniel Noboa's hardline anti-gang policies.

The first facility, which opened in November, was modeled on El Salvador's brutal Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) and has capacity for 800 suspected gang members.

Prison for 15,000 people

The government is planning to construct a second prison for about 15,000 people in May, which Reimberg said would be completed within 18 months.

"A third prison? Yes, probably. And as many as are needed for these criminals," Reimberg told AFP during an interview in the conflict-ridden port city of Guayaquil.

The new prison is "essential," he said, adding that it would be "very secure, just like the Encuentro facility is today," referring to the first prison in southwestern Santa Elena, where inmates with shaved heads wear orange uniforms.

A power struggle between gangs with links to international cartels is ravaging Ecuador, which has become the region's most violent country with a rate of 51 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

The minister said "highly dangerous criminals" who "must be held in isolation" will be transferred to the next prison, shrugging off criticism about abuses from human rights organizations.

"I have to answer to the country with security," he said.