Tragedy increases to 30 the number of prisoners killed in similar circumstances in the last three days
A dispute between drug trafficking factions within an Ecuador prison left at least 17 dead on Thursday (25) during a wave of violence that has intensified in the country in recent years.
According to Snai, the body responsible for Ecuadorian prisons, most of the victims showed signs of stab wounds and mutilations. The tragedy increases to 30 the number of prisoners killed in similar circumstances in the last three days. A penitentiary agent was also murdered.
The deaths occurred in the main Penitentiary of Esmeraldas, a port city in the north of the country, near the Colombian border. Images checked by the AFP news agency and released on social networks show bloody bodies on the floor, some of them beheaded.
The prison center has a capacity of 1,100 people, but by 2022 it already housed more than 1,400 detainees, according to official data. Outside, the military surrounded the area near the penitentiary, and family members and residents crowded in search of information.
A woman looking for a relative said that since dawn, prison neighbors reported fire noises and shouts. According to her, military personnel even recommended that people go to the morgue to see if their family members were alive or killed.
On Monday (22), another confrontation between detainees had already left 13 prisoners and a guard killed in the Machala Penitentiary, a coastal city near Peru. Another 14 people were injured.
The increase in violence in Ecuador chains reflects the dispute between organizations for drug trafficking. It is estimated that about 500 prisoners have been murdered since 2021 in similar massacres.
Much of the cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest exporters of the drug, goes through Ecuadorian ports towards the United States and Europe. Official data indicates that 70% of the drug that goes to the US territory moves through Ecuador.
The crisis of violence has worsened since 2021, when the country recorded the largest prison killing in its history, with more than 100 dead in a Guayaquil penitentiary. At the time, prisoners broadcast live scenes of beheadings and burns on social networks.
Since 2024, the Armed Forces have taken control of prisons, after President Daniel Noboa has declared war on organized crime and decreed a situation of “internal armed conflict” to face about 20 factions linked to international cartels.
Despite the measures, violence continues to grow. Over the past six years, the number of homicides in Ecuador has increased more than 600%.
