At least four people were killed and 34 more injured in a clash between firearms and explosives inside a prison in southwestern Ecuador this Sunday (9th).
Ecuador’s prisons have become hubs for drug trafficking organizations that compete and clash over the country’s illegal business and goods routes. Since 2021, approximately 600 prisoners have died as a result of these conflicts.
Around 3 a.m. (local time) on Sunday, residents of Machala, El Oro department, recorded the sounds of gunshots, explosions and cries for help coming from inside the detention center.
The country’s prison, Senai, confirmed in a statement that four people were killed in the clashes, but did not say whether they were all inmates.
The department had announced in the morning that 44 people were injured, but later revised the information to say the remaining injuries included one police officer and 33 inmates.
According to SNAI, an elite team of police immediately entered the jail, arrested seven people who will be charged, and regained control after the riot.
Another armed clash occurred in the same prison in late September, resulting in the deaths of 14 people, including a prison staff member.
Prison authorities said the new clashes were caused by the planned reorganization of some prisoners in a new maximum-security prison built by President Daniel Novoa’s government in the coastal state of Santa Elena and scheduled to open this month.
The president, who is up for re-election in April 2025, has bet on militarizing the country to contain the violence, with little success and criticism from experts and opponents who see it as a threat to the country’s democracy.
Novoa has also approached the United States, where President Donald Trump’s administration has used rhetoric about combating drug trafficking as a justification for attacks on boats believed to belong to drug traffickers in Latin American waters.
Ecuador’s president recently hosted US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and said Washington wants to establish a military base in the country. Citizens of the Andean mountain country will vote on Wednesday to decide whether to allow such facilities again, something that has been vetoed by the constitution since 2008.
In 2024, the military took control of the country’s prisons on the orders of Noboa, who declared the country under internal armed conflict with drug-trafficking groups. However, in August this year, control of eight people, including Machala, was transferred to the police.
Ecuador’s largest prison massacre occurred in 2021, when more than 100 inmates were killed in a prison in Guayaquil (southwest). The prisoners live-streamed the clash, and the bodies were incinerated and broadcast live.
Ecuador’s murder rate increased from 6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to 38 per 100,000 in 2024 due to violence between gangs that take advantage of the country’s strategic location in global trade to export drugs. The previous year saw a historic peak of 47 cases per 100,000 people.
It is estimated that 73% of the world’s cocaine production passes through Ecuador’s ports, and in 2024 Ecuador seized a record 294 tonnes of the drug, a 33% increase compared to 2023, when 221 tonnes were seized.
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