Ecuador’s prison system, which includes 36 facilities, remains immersed in an increasingly deep humanitarian and security crisis, marked by massacres, structural violence, overcrowding, tuberculosis outbreaks, and unexplained deaths. Authorities face mounting pressure to guarantee transparency, accountability, and basic health care for people deprived of liberty.
Prisons or Command Centers?
Fernando Carrion Mena is an academic, researcher, and expert in security, violence, drug trafficking, and urban policy, with a recognized intellectual trajectory in Ecuador and Latin America. His specialization in security is based on decades of research on violence, organized crime, and public policy, as well as public interventions analyzing Ecuador’s crisis of violence and criminality and proposing comprehensive policy approaches. In recent years, he has been cited as a key reference warning about the deepening prison crisis, the role of drug trafficking, and the need for structural security reforms.
In response to the question, “Why have prisons become operational command centers for criminal activity in Ecuador?” Carrion outlines a series of causes that have extended across several administrations.
Carrion explains that over the past four years, violence levels considered “very high” reached their peak in 2025. He states that more than 900 inmates have died inside Ecuadorian prisons due to clashes between organized crime groups, malnutrition resulting from lack of access to food, or illness such as tuberculosis. The year 2025 alone surpassed the deaths recorded from 2021 to date.
The violent death rate in 2025 reached 51 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the security expert. These figures are closely linked to the management of the prison system, he explains, “because there has not been proper intervention; we have deaths from three main causes: illness, lack of food, and violence.” Prisons in Ecuador have shifted from being “schools of crime” to becoming “offices and enterprises.”
Record of Violent Deaths in Ecuador’s Prisons
According to data from Ecuador’s Ministry of the Interior, from 2014 to October 2025, 943 inmates died in the country. The records show 3 deaths in 2014, 12 in 2015, 6 in 2016, 8 in 2017, 15 in 2018, 32 in 2019, 51 in 2020, 337 in 2021, 163 in 2022, 110 in 2023, 85 in 2024, and 121 in 2025.
“Today, prison in Ecuador is no longer a university of crime; today it is an office, a business, a place where criminal acts are committed. Why? Mainly because there is a very direct relationship between organized crime outside prisons and the crime operating inside them. In many cases, it is even preferable to be imprisoned in order to manage criminal operations from there,” Carrion said.
Internal Armed Conflict
The escape of Jose Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito,” leader of the criminal organization “Los Choneros,” considered the most powerful and violent organized crime group in the country with links to international cartels, marked a turning point. Fito disappeared from his cell in the Guayaquil Regional Prison in January 2024. He was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, murder, and organized crime. His escape triggered prison riots, hostage-taking of guards, and coordinated attacks across several prisons nationwide. He was later recaptured and extradited to the United States in 2025.
Fabricio Colon Pico, leader of the criminal organization “Los Lobos,” considered the second largest criminal group in Ecuador after Los Choneros, also escaped from Chimborazo Prison No. 1 during clashes between inmates and security forces on January 9, 2024. He was later recaptured.
Both events prompted President Daniel Noboa to declare an internal armed conflict on January 9, 2024. The declaration followed mass prison escapes and the takeover of TC Television by members of organized crime, broadcast live nationwide. To date, Ecuador remains under a state of internal emergency, with 22 organized crime groups designated as “terrorists.”
Security expert Fernando Carrion states that organized crime groups had intelligence that allowed them to anticipate the transfer of their leaders to different prisons. This jeopardized their external connections and triggered widespread violence in 17 cities across the country.
Organic Law and the Strengthening of the Penitentiary System
The National Assembly’s Comprehensive Security Commission is debating reforms to the Organic Law for the Strengthening of the Penitentiary System in response to organized crime. According to criminal judge Renan Andrade, an expert in corruption and organized crime cases, existing regulations have fallen behind the “mutation of criminal organizations,” which constantly seek new ways to evade the law and commit crimes without detection. “The law must constantly evolve, because organized crime is constantly evolving,” Andrade added.
The reform aims to improve working conditions for prison guards and strengthen the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP) to better confront organized crime offenses
Access to Virtual Systems
According to the magistrate, the reform will address transnational organized crime, drug trafficking, and money laundering. The legislation seeks to expand access to virtual systems, telematic hearings, and family visits, with emphasis on the new prison facilities installed by the Ecuadorian government. Improving security conditions for prison guards is also a key objective of the reform, given the rise in violence within penitentiary centers. “Specifically regarding prison guards, improvements are being made to ensure better working conditions and differentiated treatment according to the crime involved, particularly in cases related to organized crime.”
The magistrate asserts that reforming the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code will improve judicial units nationwide. The expiration of pretrial detention is another measure that must be reviewed. Currently, pretrial detention expires after one year. Judge Andrade questions this timeframe in cases involving organized crime groups prosecuted collectively.
“When cases involve organized crime groups of more than 30 individuals, it is not the same as handling a robbery case with one or two defendants.”
Fear Lurks Daily
Silvana Sanguna visits her husband, who has been deprived of liberty for more than three years at the Latacunga prison, one of the largest facilities in the country, located nearly two hours from Quito. She questions Ecuador’s justice system, describing it as “corrupt.” She maintains her husband’s alleged innocence.
“I have had an investigation since 2012, and my husband was sentenced in 2018.”
Her husband was a taxi driver. She admits he “might bear some responsibility, but that should be determined by the law.” Her greatest fear, however, is losing him within the penitentiary system, as he is currently held in the Cotopaxi prison.
“For us, it is very distressing because we do not know if he will wake up tomorrow or what might happen to them. They are in constant danger. Authorities should truly distinguish between those who are guilty and those who are innocent.”
Maria Veronica Mantor, another relative of an inmate in Cotopaxi prison and mother of four children who miss their father, also questions the prison system for failing to guarantee adequate food for her husband, who is serving a six-year sentence.
“My children cry, they suffer and get sick because of their father. I suffer greatly too, because there are many rumors that people are killed here. There are many criminals.”
Institutional Crisis
Cristian Andres Benavides Fuentes is an independent Ecuadorian Assembly member elected from the province of Carchi, which borders Colombia. Elected in February 2025, he focuses publicly on security and border cooperation issues.
According to the Assembly member, “an institutional crisis, the penetration of organized crime, and lack of budget” are the main causes behind the long-standing penitentiary crisis in Ecuador.
“We are living through an institutional crisis. Organized crime has permeated public institutions; it has infiltrated the judicial branch. There are prosecutors and judges who are, in some way, influenced by organized crime. Because of this, and due to the lack of clear institutional direction, authorities fail to implement measures that could be taken within prison centers.”
Benavides also states that cellular coverage remains accessible inside prisons. He questions why the Ecuadorian government has not managed to restrict communications with the outside world, turning prisons into operational centers for organized crime.