Quito, Ecuador — Eight inmates were killed on Thursday in two separate prison riots in Ecuador’s Andean provinces of Cotopaxi and Pichincha, according to the National Service for Comprehensive Care for Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI).
In an official statement, SNAI said four inmates died at the Cotopaxi No. 1 Deprivation of Liberty Center in Latacunga, while four others were killed at the Pichincha No. 1 Provisional Detention Center, commonly known as El Inca prison, in Quito.
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Ten other people were injured in the incidents and are receiving medical treatment, the authority confirmed.
SNAI said those allegedly involved in the riots had been identified and would be transferred to El Encuentro, a maximum-security prison in the coastal province of Santa Elena.
The authority added that the Security Bloc, comprising the National Police and the Armed Forces, is maintaining security protocols and conducting operations at the affected facilities to restore and maintain order.
Ecuador’s prisons remain major hotspots of violence, with clashes between rival criminal gangs responsible for deadly massacres that have claimed dozens of lives since 2021.
Since January 2024, Ecuador’s military has been deployed to prisons as part of the government’s response to organized crime under its declaration of an “internal armed conflict.”
SNAI said four inmates died at the Cotopaxi prison and four at El Inca, the Pichincha provisional detention centre in Quito. Ten people were injured in Quito and were receiving medical care.
Primicias, Teleamazonas and El Universo, three Ecuadorian outlets, all carried the SNAI figures on Thursday evening. Primicias published at 18:58 local time and updated at 20:31.
At Cotopaxi, Primicias reported violence and gunshots in the minimum- and medium-security pavilions and, citing local media, tactical agents entering. Teleamazonas said forensic staff were removing bodies and the Army’s Special Forces Brigade No. 9 “Patria” controlled the site.
In Quito, the city transit agency closed a road near El Inca from 18:00 because of the emergency, Primicias reported. SNAI said its Security Bloc kept operations running at both prisons to restore order.
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