Director of Ecuador’s Prisons Killed in Armed Assault

The prison management agency of Ecuador reported that two policemen were injured and the director of a jail located in the Amazon region of the country was slain in an armed attack on Tuesday.

The SNAI prisons agency posted on WhatsApp that “three administrative officials of the Center for Deprivation of Liberty…were victims of an armed attack” while traveling to Coca City.

The province of Sucumbios prison director, Alex Guevara, “unfortunately died due to the attack,” it was stated.

He was accompanied by two other workers who were also hurt.

A picture of the official vehicle with many bullet holes in the windshield was released by the local media.

According to SNAI, the police are looking into the incident.

Two prison guards were slain last week while traveling to work at a jail in southwest Guayaquil, one of the most violent cities in Ecuador where drug trafficking routes are the source of conflict between criminal gangs.

After recording six murders per 100,000 people in 2018, Ecuador saw a record 47 killings per 100,000 people in 2023.

President Daniel Noboa’s administration asserts that fewer people have been killed as a result of its campaign against organized crime.

According to the interior ministry, there were 4,236 recorded murders between January and September of this year, compared to 5,112 during the same period in 2023.