Overview

• Ecuador's prison authority raised the Esmeraldas death toll to at least 17, with AFP-verified images showing beheadings and other severe injuries.
• The unrest is the second lethal prison disturbance this week, following reports that 13 inmates and a guard were killed in southwest Ecuador on Monday.
• Officials say the dead belonged to rival gangs Los Choneros and Los Lobos, which the United States designated as foreign terrorist organizations earlier this month.
• Authorities describe Ecuador's overcrowded prisons as battlegrounds for drug-trafficking groups in a nation that government data says channels over 70% of global cocaine production through its ports.
• Prisons remain under temporary military control under President Daniel Noboa's internal armed conflict order, yet roughly 500 inmates have been killed since 2021.