QUITO/GUAYAQUIL Ecuador (Reuters). Ecuador plans to pardon as many as 2,000 detainees to ease overcrowding. The decision comes after 118 prisoners died and 79 more were hurt in Ecuador’s worst ever prison riot.

Bolivar Garzon is the head of the SNAI South American prison authority. He said that the government aims to prioritise the elderly and women as well as prisoners with terminal illnesses and those who have disabilities in light of clashes at Tuesday’s Penitenciaria del Litoral, in southern Guayaquil.

Garzon stated that 39,000 people are in prison at the moment.

Garzon claimed that the Riot, which was just the latest in a series of violence inside prisons in Andean countries, was caused by an “organized crime group’s struggle to control them.” Riots in this country left 79 victims in February and 22 dead in July.

Officials claim that gangs are fighting over drugs trafficking routes and have formed alliances with transnational criminal organizations.

According to Alexandra Vela, Ecuador sent 3600 military and police reinforcements to all prisons in the country for order. The Interior Minister Alexandra Vela stated that 41 victims were identified and the bodies had been delivered by the forensic unit to their relatives.

A Guayaquil prison morgue has seen dozens of relatives gather to seek information on their loved ones. At least six of the victims had been decapitated, according to authorities.

Eduardo Montes (60) was waiting for news from his brother Vicente Montes (25), who will be released within one month.

Montes stated that they received a photograph showing the head of one victim. We believe this to be my brother. However, we don’t know if it is dead or alive. I hope he’s still alive, and they let him go.