# Fourteen killed in Ecuador prison clash as gangs break through security
*Event date: 2025-09-22.*
A prison clash in southern Ecuador has left 14 people dead, 14 injured and an unknown number of inmates temporarily on the run, in one of the latest violent episodes to hit the country's overcrowded jail system.
The BBC reported that 13 inmates and one prison guard were killed in the Machala jail in El Oro province after rival gang members fought in the early hours of Monday local time. Another 14 people were injured, including two police officers.
Police chief William Calle said an unknown number of prisoners escaped during the incident, although 13 had been recaptured by the time of the report. Security forces later regained control of the jail after deploying 200 police and soldiers.
According to preliminary reports cited by the BBC, the violence began when prison staff rushed to a wing of the jail after receiving an alarm call from inmates. When they arrived, they were taken hostage and one guard was killed. Members of a gang called Los Lobos Box then stormed a rival wing and attacked prisoners there.
Explosives appear to have played a role in the breakout. The report said some inmates escaped through a hole in the perimeter wall caused by a device they set off, though it was not clear how the explosives were smuggled in. That detail underlines the scale of the security failure inside a facility in the centre of Machala.
The BBC report says deadly prison clashes are not unusual in Ecuador, where gangs often attack members of rival groups and use prisons as operational bases. The violence has helped turn the country from one of Latin America's safest nations into one of its deadliest.
Ecuador's prison gangs have also built links to Mexican cartels and play a key role in trafficking cocaine through the country's ports. That wider criminal economy helps explain why prison disturbances are so often linked to organized violence rather than simple disputes between inmates.
The incident comes shortly after the United States designated Los Lobos and Los Choneros as foreign terrorist organisations. The BBC said the US State Department described their goal as controlling trafficking routes through Ecuador by terrorising the population.
For residents of Machala, the violence also renewed long-standing complaints about the jail's location in the city centre. The report cited Ecuadorean broadcaster Ecuavisa saying residents have wanted the prison moved for years. After Monday's bloodshed, those calls are likely to intensify.
What is clear already is that the jail was overwhelmed by armed confrontation and that the state needed a large show of force to restore order. What remains unclear is how the weapons and explosives entered the prison and whether the escapees will be captured before more violence follows.
