Overview
- SNAI reports at least 31 inmate deaths, including 27 attributed to asphyxiation and immediate death by hanging.
- Tactical police regained control of the Machala facility after the riot, with more than 30 inmates injured and one police officer hurt.
- The prisons agency says the disturbance was triggered by a reorganization of inmates tied to a soon-to-open maximum-security prison in another province.
- The violence comes less than two months after a deadly clash at the same site that left 14 inmates dead and 14 injured.
- Ecuador’s overcrowded and gang-influenced prison system has recorded more than 500 riot-related deaths since 2021, with the Noboa administration blaming rival criminal groups.