Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso granted a pardon Monday to inmates with serious illnesses and those jailed for traffic violations to alleviate overcrowding in the country’s prisons after recent riots left more than 300 dead.
The pardons will benefit seriously or terminally ill prisoners and those involved in traffic offenses that did not cause injury or death, the communications ministry said in a statement, without specifying how many would be released.
The measure is part of a government plan to combat prison violence due to disputes between criminal gangs linked to drug trafficking.
It was announced on November 14 after bloody clashes between rival gangs left at least 68 dead at a prison in the city of Guayaquil, with inmates attacking each other with guns, machetes and explosives.