You may have seen the news out of Ecuador about the prison massacre on November 9.
The facts are horrific: at least 31 prisoners died and dozens were injured within 24 hours at the Machala prison in El Oro province. The violence resulted from clashes between former-allies-turned-rival gangs, the Lobos and the Sao Box, which the government claims was triggered by its pledge to transfer many prisoners to a new maximum-security prison.
Dozens of outlets around the region covered the tragedy. So, why didn’t we?
We decided not to cover this particular event because, though significant, it doesn’t tell us anything new about organized crime dynamics.
In this case, Ecuador’s recent prison massacre stems from a dynamic that we identified in 2024: the government’s efforts to unseat the country’s dominant criminal groups have prompted the formation of new groups who must fight for their piece of the criminal pie.
Unfortunately, these kinds of events happen often. In Ecuador, for example, prisons have been central to criminal groups’ rise to power. As a result, violent clashes for control within prisons are common, especially in the last five years.
And this isn’t limited to Ecuador. In the last 15 years, we’ve reported on prison violence throughout the region: in Honduras, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, El Salvador, Venezuela, Panama, Guatemala, Chile, to name a few.
So instead of covering this particular incident, we focused on sharing context and data to help make sense of it – and when a development truly reveals a shift in criminal dynamics, illustrates the impact of a new security policy, or the emergence of a new power, you can be sure we’ll be there to unpack it.
