Ecuador prison director shot dead as she drove with coworker, second such killing this month

The director of Ecuador’s biggest prison was killed in an armed attack on Thursday, the second such killing in under two weeks in the Latin American country, the SNAI prison agency said.

Maria Daniela Icaza, director of the infamous Litoral penitentiary in the port city Guayaquil died of injuries sustained “following an armed attack on the road” leading to the nearby town of Daule, the agency said.

She died while being taken to hospital, the agency said in a WhatsApp message, adding that an official from the prison service who was travelling with her was injured in the incident.

Ecuador’s prisons are among the most dangerous in the world, and many have been taken over by drug gangs.

The penitentiaries have been under military control since January, when President Daniel Noboa declared a state of “internal armed conflict” after a brutal wave of violence, sparked by the jailbreak of a powerful crime boss.

In January, gunmen stormed and opened fire in a TV studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and security forces. A prosecutor investigating the assault was later shot dead.

Icaza’s death comes nine days after the head of a prison in the Amazonian province of Sucumbios, Alex Guevara, was killed, also in an armed attack while travelling by car.

Two other workers who were with him were wounded after unknown assailants raked his vehicle with gunfire.

And two weeks ago, two prison officers in Guayaquil were murdered on their way to work.

Ecuador registered a record 47 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, up from a rate of six murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018.

Once considered a bastion of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has been plunged into crisis by the rapid spread of transnational cartels that use its ports — mainly Guayaquil — to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.

Noboa’s government claims that its offensive against organized crime has reduced homicides.

Between January and September this year, 4,236 murders were reported, while in the same period in 2023, there were 5,112, according to the interior ministry.

Noboa said he is targeting 22 criminal groups, the most powerful of which are Los Choneros, Los Lobos, and Tiguerones.

In June, the U.S. sanctioned Los Lobos and its leader, Wilmer Geovanny Chavarria Barre, who also goes by “Pipo.” U.S. officials have deemed Los Lobos the largest drug trafficking ring in Ecuador and said the gang “contributes significantly to the violence gripping the country.”