Inside Machala’s prison, the violence was swift and merciless: 31 inmates dead, many found hanged or asphyxiated after hours of gunfire and explosions shattered the night. Tactical units eventually stormed the facility, but they arrived as responders to a massacre, not preventers of one. More than 30 inmates and a police officer were injured, adding to a grim national tally that has surpassed 500 prison deaths since 2021.

Behind these numbers lies a system effectively surrendered to gangs. Ecuador’s penitentiaries now function as command centers for drug-trafficking networks that reach from overcrowded cell blocks to global cocaine routes. Each “reorganization,” each transfer, risks igniting a new war. While President Daniel Noboa promises a hardline response, families again wait outside prison gates, clinging to lists of names, fearing the silence that means their loved one will only be found on a slab of cold steel.