Eight Inmates Killed in Separate Prison Riots Across Ecuador

By Staff, Agencies

Eight inmates were killed and 10 others injured in two separate prison riots on Thursday in Ecuador’s Andean provinces of Cotopaxi and Pichincha, according to the country’s prison authority.

In a statement published on X, the National Service for Comprehensive Care for Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders [SNAI] confirmed that four inmates died at a prison in Latacunga, while another four were killed at El Inca prison in the capital, Quito.

The authority said the injured inmates are receiving medical treatment following the incidents.

SNAI added that authorities had identified those involved in the riots and planned to transfer them to El Encuentro, a maximum-security prison in the coastal province of Santa Elena.

Law enforcement personnel are conducting operations inside the affected facilities in an effort to restore order, the agency said.

Ecuador’s prison system has become a major hotspot for violence in recent years, with rival criminal gangs involved in repeated deadly confrontations. A series of prison massacres since 2021 has claimed dozens of lives, highlighting the persistent security challenges facing the country’s correctional facilities.