Rioting at Ecuadorian prison leaves 31 inmates dead and dozens injured

QUITO, Ecuador — Deadly rioting that broke out at a prison in Ecuador where inmates were set to be transferred to a new maximum-security facility has left at least 31 inmates killed and 30 others injured, prisons officials said Monday.

Authorities gave few details of the violence Sunday at the prison in Machala in southwest Ecuador, but the country's prison oversight agency said that 27 inmates died of asphyxiation and four others of unspecified causes. Authorities initially reported regaining control of the facility after only four deaths, but later reported the additional deaths following what they said was a separate flare-up of rioting.

The agency, which said one police officer was injured, did not respond to a request for additional information from The Associated Press.

The violence broke out over plans for a “reorganization of inmates” to a new maximum-security prison that will soon begin operating in a different province, the prisons agency said.

The violence happened less than two months after 14 inmates died at the same prison in a riot that authorities blamed at the time on a dispute between gangs.

Ecuador’s prisons have become among the deadliest in Latin America as overcrowding, corruption and weak state control have allowed gangs connected to drug traffickers in Colombia and Mexico to proliferate. Many prisoners are heavily armed with weapons smuggled from the outside and continue to organize criminal activity from behind bars.

More than 500 people have died in prison riots since 2021. Last year, 150 prison guards were taken hostage during a series of coordinated riots across multiple prisons.

Authorities attribute the prison riots and massacres to disputes between criminal gangs vying for control of the facilities and for dominance over drug export routes and territories for distribution within the country.