Deadly Prison Riot Leaves 31 Inmates Dead as Authorities Probe Cause

Outside, mothers and fathers wait behind cordons, clutching phones that do not ring, trapped between official silence and whispered lists of the dead. Inside government offices, promises of reform collide with the entrenched power of drug-trafficking networks that use overcrowded cellblocks as operational hubs. Until Ecuador confronts that reality head-on, Machala will not be the last night the country wakes to gunfire behind prison walls.

The screams started before dawn. Gunfire, explosions, bodies hanging in the dark. By sunrise, more than 30 inmates were dead, dozens wounded, and a nation already on edge was plunged into fresh terror. Officials rushed to explain. Families rushed to the gates. But inside those walls, something far darker than a “riot” was unfol…