Overview
- SNAI said police discovered the bodies during an immediate sweep after a detonation outside the Machala facility in El Oro province.
- Police forensic teams are conducting autopsies to establish causes of death, and authorities have not linked the blast to the killings.
- The same prison recorded 31 inmate deaths in early November and 14 in late September in separate episodes of violence.
- SNAI cites roughly 35% overcrowding in Ecuador’s prisons, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reports at least 670 inmate killings in recent years.
- Human-rights organizations press for urgent protections for people in custody as the government continues military deployments across the prison system.