Inside Machala’s prison, the violence was rapid and merciless. Thirty-one inmates were killed, many discovered hanged or asphyxiated after hours of relentless gunfire and explosions shattered the night. Tactical units eventually stormed the facility, but they arrived too late—responding to a massacre rather than preventing one. More than thirty inmates and even a police officer sustained injuries, adding to a grim national toll that has now exceeded 500 prison deaths since 2021. Each death serves as a brutal reminder that Ecuador’s penitentiaries are no longer places of rehabilitation or containment; they are epicenters of organized brutality.
Behind these staggering numbers lies a system that has, in many ways, surrendered to the power of gangs. Ecuador’s penitentiaries now operate as command centers for drug-trafficking networks, linking overcrowded cell blocks to global cocaine routes and criminal enterprises that extend far beyond the prison walls. Every “reorganization” of inmates, every transfer between cells or facilities, carries the risk of igniting yet another bloody conflict. Rival factions vie for control, alliances shift with deadly speed, and the prisons have become mirrors of the violent underworld they were meant to contain. Continue reading…
