At least 13 inmates and one guard were killed during a violent riot in a prison in southwest Ecuador, authorities confirmed Monday.
The chaos erupted in the early hours at a facility in Machala, near the Peruvian border, when rival gangs Los Choneros and Los Lobos engaged in a deadly battle using guns, bombs, and grenades.
Police commander Colonel William Calle, speaking to local broadcaster Ecuavisa, said the confrontation lasted around 40 minutes. Several prison guards were taken hostage during the unrest, though their current status remains unclear.
An unknown number of inmates escaped, while 13 have since been recaptured. Fourteen people, including prisoners and staff, sustained injuries.
"The inmates fired guns, threw bombs, and grenades,” Calle reported, adding that security forces have since regained control of the prison.
Officials say the prison, designed to hold far fewer inmates, is severely overcrowded, a factor fueling repeated outbreaks of gang warfare behind bars.
A Nation in Crisis
Once considered a peaceful nation, Ecuador has become one of the world’s most violent hotspots, positioned between Colombia and Peru, the globe’s two largest cocaine producers. More than 70% of the world’s cocaine now transits through Ecuador’s ports, according to government data.
Since 2021, nearly 500 inmates have been killed in Ecuador’s prisons, often in brutal gang-led massacres. The worst came that same year, when more than 100 prisoners died in Guayaquil.
Violence has not been confined to prisons. In January 2024, gang members stormed a live TV broadcast at gunpoint and detonated bombs in cities nationwide after the dramatic jailbreak of José Adolfo Macías (“Fito”), leader of Los Choneros.
President Daniel Noboa responded by declaring a “state of internal armed conflict.” Though Fito was recaptured in June, he and other gang leaders are believed to maintain influence from within prison walls.
The Los Choneros gang is linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan, and Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory.
