MACHALA, Ecuador (BN24) — At least 14 people, including a prison guard, were killed and more than a dozen others injured in a brutal confrontation between rival inmate gangs in a southwestern Ecuadoran prison, authorities confirmed Sunday, marking yet another bloody chapter in the nation’s intensifying drug war crisis.
The riot erupted in the early morning hours in a facility located in Machala, near Ecuador’s border with Peru. According to police, inmates from the Los Choneros and Los Lobos gangs — two of Ecuador’s most powerful drug-trafficking factions — exchanged gunfire and hurled explosives during a 40-minute siege that left 13 inmates and one guard dead.
Colonel William Calle, a police commander, described the scene as chaotic and deadly during an interview on Ecuavisa television. Gunfire and explosions drew the attention of prison staff and security forces, who rushed to respond. One guard was shot and killed while attempting to intervene. Several others were briefly taken hostage, though officials have not disclosed their current condition or the number of prisoners who may have escaped amid the violence.
Thirteen inmates have been recaptured, but the full extent of the escape remains unclear.
The prison, designed to house far fewer inmates than it currently holds, has become a battleground for control between armed factions linked to international drug cartels. Police confirmed that the latest bloodshed stemmed from gang rivalries, a familiar pattern in Ecuador’s overcrowded and poorly managed penitentiaries.
Ecuador has become a key player in the international drug trade, positioned between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest cocaine producers. More than 70 percent of the global cocaine supply now moves through Ecuadorian ports, according to government data. The country, once regarded as one of the region’s more peaceful nations, has transformed into one of the most violent, with organized crime at the center of its descent.
Since February 2021, roughly 500 inmates have died in Ecuador’s prison system. The most devastating massacre occurred in Guayaquil in 2021, when more than 100 inmates were killed in a single outbreak of gang-fueled carnage. That event, like others, was livestreamed from inside prison walls, with inmates posting images of beheadings and burned bodies to social media.
President Daniel Noboa has taken increasingly hardline measures to combat the escalating crisis. In response to a nationwide surge in violence, including a spate of attacks by organized crime groups earlier this year, he declared a state of “internal armed conflict.”
The country’s most notorious narco boss, Jose Adolfo Macias, also known as “Fito” and leader of Los Choneros, was recaptured in June following a high-profile escape that triggered waves of violence across Ecuador. Even while incarcerated, Fito wielded influence over the drug trade, with videos surfacing showing him holding lavish parties inside prison, complete with fireworks.
Los Choneros maintains strong ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan, and Balkan criminal networks, making it one of the most internationally connected gangs in the region.
Authorities say control over the Machala prison has been restored. However, the riot underscores the scale of Ecuador’s ongoing security emergency and the extent to which criminal groups continue to operate with impunity both inside and outside of state institutions.
