Ecuadorian prison director shot dead while driving with colleague – second such murder this month

The director of Ecuador's largest prison was killed in an armed attack on Thursday. It was the second such murder in less than two weeks in the Latin American country, the prison authority SNAI said.

Maria Daniela Icaza, director of the notorious Litoral Prison in Port city of GuayaquiI died as a result of a “surveillance on the road” leading to the nearby town of Daule, the agency said.

She died on the way to the hospital, the agency said in a WhatsApp message. A prison officer who was traveling 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 prisons have been under military control since January, when President Daniel Noboa State of “internal armed conflict” after a brutal wave of violence triggered by the prison break of a powerful crime boss.

In January Gunmen stormed the street and opened fire in a television studio and bandits threatened arbitrary executions of civilians and security forces. A prosecutor investigating the attack was later shot.

Icaza's death came nine days after the prison director in the Amazon province of Sucumbios, Alex Guevara, was also killed in an armed attack while driving.

Two other workers who were with him were injured when unknown assailants riddled his vehicle with gunfire.

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

Ecuador recorded a record 47 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, compared to six murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018.

Ecuador was once considered a haven of peace in Latin America, but has been plunged into crisis by the rapid spread of transnational cartels that use the country's ports – especially Guayaquil – to smuggle drugs to the United States and Europe.

Noboa's government claims that its offensive against organized crime has reduced the number of murders.

Between January and September of this year, 4,236 murders were reported, according to the Interior Ministry, and 5,112 in the same period in 2023.

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

In June The US sanctions Los Lobos and their leader Wilmer Geovanny Chavarria Barre, also known as “Pipo.” U.S. authorities have classified Los Lobos as Ecuador's largest drug ring and said the gang “contributes significantly to the violence that has gripped the country.”