QUITO: Inmates in Ecuador fought each other with guns and explosives in a riot that left 13 prisoners and a guard dead, police said.

The mayhem was the latest in a series of bloodbaths to engulf gang-ridden, ove­r­crowded prisons in a once-peaceful country now at ground zero of the violent Latin American drug trade.

An unknown number of inmates escaped in the clash between rival gangs, during which another 14 people were injured, a mas­ked police officer identified as commander Colonel William Calle told the Ecu­avisa channel. Thirteen inmates have been recaptured. Calle said gunfire broke out in the early morning hours, alerting prison gua­rds and police who rushed to that part of the prison in Machala, in southwest Ecuador near the Peruvian border. One guide was killed as he entered, and others were taken hostage, said the officer.

Calle said the confrontation lasted about 40 minutes, during which inmates “fired guns, threw bombs, grenades.” The dead inm­ates belonged to the rival Los Choneros and Los Lobos gangs, two of the biggest drug trafficking gro­ups in Ecuador. Police said the violence was the result of “fighting between gangs” in a facility housing double the number of inmates it was designed for.

Organised crime has transformed Ecuador, a country of about 17 million, into one of the most violent nations in the world. Calle said “control has already been regained” over the prison. He did not specify the fate of the hostages or how many inmates were on the run.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2025