# Ecuador prison riot leaves 31 inmates dead and dozens injured in Machala
A prison riot in Machala, Ecuador, killed 31 inmates and injured more than 30 others on the event date, November 9, 2025, according to corrections officials who said the violence broke out as the government prepared to move prisoners to a new maximum-security facility.
Authorities said the dead included 27 inmates who died of asphyxiation and four others who died from unspecified causes. Officials initially said they had regained control of the prison after four deaths, but later reported a second flare-up of rioting and the higher toll. One police officer was also injured.
The prison oversight agency said the unrest erupted over plans for a reorganization of inmates linked to the new facility, which is expected to open in a different province. Authorities did not immediately provide further details about how the violence unfolded inside the prison or what weapons, if any, were used.
The riot in Machala was the latest deadly episode in an Ecuadorian prison system that has become one of Latin America’s most violent. The AP report says overcrowding, corruption and weak state control have allowed criminal groups tied to drug trafficking networks in Colombia and Mexico to proliferate inside prisons, where inmates have continued to organize criminal activity from behind bars.
That broader context helps explain why prison unrest in Ecuador so often escalates into mass-casualty violence. Officials said many prisoners are heavily armed with weapons smuggled from outside, and the country has already seen more than 500 deaths in prison riots since 2021. Last year, 150 prison guards were taken hostage during coordinated unrest across multiple facilities.
The Machala riot also came less than two months after 14 inmates died at the same prison in another riot that authorities had blamed on a gang dispute. The repeated violence suggests the problem is not isolated to one facility but is part of a deeper struggle for control inside the prison system and over criminal networks outside it.
Families gathered outside the morgue in Machala as soldiers stood guard near the prison and workers removed belongings from the facility. The evidence packet does not provide a full accounting of the damage, but it makes clear that the human toll is already severe and that authorities are still managing both the immediate aftermath and the wider security challenge.
The event date is November 9, 2025.
