Five prisoners died on Thursday in Litoral Prison, The largest and most combative prison in EcuadorIn addition to the seven deaths reported the previous day in the same center.
According to the National Service for the Comprehensive Care of Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the bodies of the deceased were found.”They showed no signs of violence, and this was initially assumed to be due to tuberculosis.“.
Confirming the cause of death will be the responsibility of the emergency team. Forensic medicineWhich must issue its opinion before the families can claim the bodies.
These new deaths come in the context of the internal health crisis that has occurred Tuberculosis outbreak And cases Chronic malnutrition. In mid-November, at least ten more deaths were reported in the same prison, “possibly due to tuberculosis.”
The health situation worsened after the transfer of 300 inmates by official order, who were identified as “The most dangerous“Towards the recently opened maximum security prison del Encuentro, promoted under the prison model applied in El Salvador.
Litoral Prison, which houses about 6,000 inmates in overcrowded conditions, has become the epicenter of a prison crisis and violence rocking Ecuador, a country where more than 600 prisoners have been killed since 2021 due to clashes between rival gangs.
Within the framework of the “internal armed conflict” declared by the President in 2024 Daniel NoboaSome prisons were militarized and others were placed under the control of the National Police, due to the rise of organized crime, which led to an escalation of the country’s murder rate to levels unprecedented in Latin America.
The surge in violence in 2025 was the deadliest chapter in the country’s history, with 4,619 homicides as of June, an amount representing a 47% increase on what was recorded in the same period in 2024, when there were 3,143 homicides.
On the other hand, the new Santa Elena prison, renamed Cárcel del Encuentro, has already started receiving inmates even though the complex is still under construction. The decision to open the center comes in response to the alarming situation of violence between gangs.
“The position is not 100 percent, it is 35 or 40 percent. President Daniel Noboa admitted in an interview that within two weeks it will reach 80 percent Radio Sucre At the end of November. This prison is one of two “Bukele-style” prison complexes that the president promised during the 2023 election campaign.
The maximum capacity of Cárcel del Encuentro is 700 people After the recent transfer of prisoners, it now houses 420 inmates. According to government plans, a large-scale prison will soon be built in the region, designed to receive up to 15,000 prisoners, as part of a strategy to tighten and reorganize the prison system in the face of the insecurity crisis.
The most serious incident linked to the prison crisis occurred in Machala prison, where 31 people died, most of them from suffocation. Due to the escalation of violence, some of the penal centers were militarized and others were placed under the control of the National Police after the declaration of “internal armed conflict.”
(With information from EFE)