At least 31 inmates were killed on Sunday following two violent clashes between rival gangs inside a southern Ecuadorian prison, with 27 victims reportedly dying from “asphyxiation,” according to officials.
Interior Minister John Reimberg told Radio Centro Ecuador on Monday that the first outbreak of violence occurred early in the morning when the Los Lobos gang was attacked by a splinter faction known as Sao-Box inside the Machala Detention Center.
The incident left at least four inmates dead and around 36 others injured, while two police officers sustained minor injuries as security forces moved in to restore order.
Later that same day, Los Lobos allegedly launched a revenge assault on Sao-Box members, killing 27 of them by asphyxiation inside shared cells, Reimberg revealed.
“In retaliation, Lobos asphyxiated members of the other organization to avoid leaving signs of violence on their bodies,” the minister said.
The gruesome discovery was made around 6 p.m. during a routine inspection by prison guards.
Ecuador’s prison authority, SNAI, said earlier on Sunday that the inmates had “committed asphyxiation among themselves, which resulted in immediate death by suspension.”
The agency did not elaborate on whether this meant the victims were hanged or killed through other means.
In a response to media inquiries, including CNN, SNAI confirmed that “authorities, operational teams and forensic medical personnel continue working at the scene, verifying information and attending to reported emergencies.”
Explaining why members of the rival groups were housed together, Reimberg said they originally belonged to the same organization before Sao-Box broke away due to leadership disagreements.
However, he did not clarify why the separation of the two gangs had not been implemented in the prison system.
SNAI attributed the initial clash to tensions surrounding the transfer of inmates to a new maximum-security facility, though it did not provide further details.
Reimberg also suggested that inmates across various prisons were instigating unrest to resist being relocated to the new institution.
The Machala killings mark the latest tragedy in a wave of deadly prison riots sweeping Ecuador.
In September, a gang confrontation in Esmeraldas claimed at least 17 lives, just three days after 14 inmates were killed in another incident in Machala.
Official figures show that since 2021, over 500 inmates have died in Ecuador’s prison system despite the government’s deployment of police and military forces to contain the chaos.
The country remains under a state of internal armed conflict, declared in January 2024 to curb escalating criminal violence.
Los Lobos is among two Ecuadorian gangs that the United States announced in September it would designate as foreign terrorist organizations, a move allowing Washington to impose sanctions and share actionable intelligence with Ecuador for “potentially lethal operations,” according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
