Ecuador prison riot leaves 4 inmates dead and dozens injured

Four inmates died and more than 30 others were injured Sunday when a riot broke out at a prison in Ecuador, corrections officials in the South American country said.

The riot stemmed from the “reorganization of inmates” to a new maximum-security prison that will soon begin operating in a different province, according to a statement from Ecuador’s prison oversight agency. The violent incident happened less than two months after 14 inmates died at the same facility in what authorities described as a dispute between gangs.

The prison is located in Machala, a coastal city in southwest Ecuador. Officials said authorities regained control of the facility following the riot, which also injured one police officer.

Authorities did not specify the identities of the deceased or confirm whether the violence was another case of inter-gang fighting, Agence France-Presse reported. The conditions of the injured were not immediately clear on Sunday.

Ecuador’s prisons have become among the deadliest in Latin America as overcrowding, corruption and weak state control have allowed gangs connected to drug traffickers in Colombia and Mexico to proliferate. Many are heavily armed with weapons smuggled in from the outside and continue to organize criminal activity from behind bars.

Another clash between drug gangs last month claimed at least 17 lives at a prison located in the coastal city of Esmeraldas, near the Colombian border.

More than 500 people in the country have died in prison riots since 2021. Last year, a series of coordinated riots across multiple prisons led to the hostage-taking of 150 prison guards.