An explosion in Ecuador is seen as gangs asserting power after inmates take hostages and free some

QUITO, Ecuador — Criminal groups in Ecuador used explosives to damage a bridge in Ecuador on Friday, authorities said, demonstrating their grip on a South American country where prison inmates took dozens of law enforcement officers hostage less than two days earlier.

Government officials described the violent acts as the response of criminal groups with a significant prison presence to inmate relocations, weapon seizures and other steps authorities took to try to regain control of several large correctional facilities.

Four car bombs and three explosive devices went off across the country in less than 48 hours. The latest explosion with dynamite happened early Friday on a bridge linking two cities in the coastal province of El Oro, National Police commander Luis García told The Associated Press.

Hours earlier, a domestic gas tank with wads of dynamite attached exploded under a different bridge in Napo province of Napo, located within Ecuador’s portion of the Amazon rainforest.

During the same period, authorities were unable to get the inmates to free all of the more than 50 police officers and prison guards they took hostage Wednesday.

Consuelo Orellana, the governor of Azuay province, reported Friday that 44 of the hostages at a prison in the city of Cuenca had been released. The country’s correction system, the National Service for Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty, did not immediately provide an update on the status of the other 13 officers taken captive.

Security analyst Daniel Pontón said the chain of events, which took place three weeks after the slaying of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. was a “systematic and clearly planned” attack that had shown the state was ineffective in preventing violence.