At least 79 inmates have been killed in simultaneous fights in four jails in Ecuador, one of the deadliest incidents in the country’s prisons in years. The military and riot police have been deployed in an effort to quell the violence, which started on Tuesday. Experts say the fights were prompted by a battle for control of the jails after a gang leader was killed in December. The number of dead is higher than the total of inmates killed in 2019 and 2020 combined. Early on Wednesday local time, prison authorities said the situation was now “under control”. They updated the number of dead and said the violence had also engulfed a fourth jail. The deadliest incident happened in Turi prison, in the city of Cuenca, where 34 were killed. There were also fatalities in two prisons in the city of Guayaquil and in a jail in Latacunga. All of those killed were inmates, officials said.(BBC)…[+]