Officials at a prison in Ecuador’s El Oro province said they found at least 27 people Sunday afternoon who had died of suffocation due to “instantaneous death by hanging.”
Asphyxia occurs when there is a lack of oxygen in the body.
In a statement on X, Ecuador’s SNAI prison authority said they were still working to “fully clarify the facts” at the prison, which is located in south-western Ecuador near the border with Peru.
In a separate incident on Sunday morning, the jail became the site of a violent riot.
According to news agencies, local residents heard gunshots, explosions and cries for help from inside the prison walls.
SNAI said four people were killed in the morning violence, while 33 prisoners and a police officer were injured.
The agency said elite police teams entered the prison soon after the riot broke out and took control.
The statement said the riot was caused by the reorganization of prisoners into a new maximum security facility.
Violence and murders are common in Ecuador’s prisons
It is the latest unrest in the South American country’s prisons.
In late September, another armed confrontation at Machala prison killed 13 prisoners and a prison officer.
The prisoners killed in that clash were from two rival gangs, one of the largest drug trafficking groups in Ecuador.
Ecuador’s prisons are the epicenter of crime
According to one, Ecuador’s violent prisons have become operational centers for rival drug trafficking gangs and are now the “epicenter” of the country’s organized crime. 2024 report by Insight Crime think tank.
Located between Peru and Colombia, the world’s two largest cocaine producers, Ecuador has become a major hub of the global cocaine trade.
This small country of about 18 million people has been hit by violence over the past few years and is now one of the most dangerous places in Latin America.
Insight Crime found that the roots of this crisis “can be found directly in the country’s prison system and the criminal networks that have developed within it.”
Edited by: Roshni Majumdar