Overview
- The prisons agency said 27 prisoners were found asphyxiated with “immediate death by hanging,” and investigators are still clarifying the events.
- Tactical police units retook control of the facility, and forensic teams remained on site to investigate.
- A separate morning riot at the same jail left four inmates dead, with 33 prisoners and one police officer reported injured.
- Residents reported gunfire and explosions from inside the complex, and police reported finding firearms and explosive devices.
- The violence follows repeated massacres in Ecuador’s overcrowded prisons, including 14 inmates killed at Machala in September during gang fighting.