International

New clashes in violence-hit Ecuador prison: officials

Photo: Galo PAGUAY / AFP

AFP

New clashes were reported on Tuesday in an Ecuadoran prison where 15 people died in a riot the day before, the state prison administration authority said.

Violence in Ecuador’s prisons, where drug gangs vie for power, is often carried out with knives and sometimes involves beheadings. The unrest has left more than 400 prisoners dead since February 2021.

“There has been a new incident” in the Latacunga prison in the center of Ecuador, around 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Quito, the SNAI prison authority told reporters.

The prison authority had to send in tactical units to re-establish control following Monday’s riot that left at least 15 inmates dead and 33 injured.

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SNAI said the most recent clashes took place in a medium-security part of the prison that houses 4,300 inmates and is one of the largest in the country.

The authority said “detonations” had been heard but that police were “containing” the inmates. No deaths have been reported.

Administrative personnel were evacuated from the prison, said SNAI.

Following Monday’s massacre, worried relatives waited outside the prison on Tuesday hoping for information on their loved ones.

“I’m looking for my brother Carlos Bravo. I got here at 6:00 am,” one tearful woman who did not give her name told AFP.

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“They told me to come and fetch my brother. I don’t know anything, there’s no list (of the dead), no-one has told me anything.”

A force of 600 police and military personnel entered the prison on Monday to try to retake control from the rioters, authorities said.

Riot sparked by inmate attack

Monday’s riot was allegedly provoked by the murder of Leandro Norero, a 36-year-old suspected drug trafficker known by the alias “El Patron” (the boss).

Norero, who had become one of the leaders of a group of inmates, was arrested last May for allegations of money laundering, in an operation in which $6.4 million, 24 gold bars, firearms and ammunition were allegedly seized.

“From what we can tell, Leandro Norero would be among the victims,” said SNAI assistant director Jorge Flores.

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The prosecutor’s office said on Twitter it was working to identify the dead.

Website GK said Monday’s riot broke out after an attack “against Norero and his security, at least six prisoners,” quoting unnamed inmates.

Norero, who was also wanted by Peru, was allegedly a member of the Los Chone Killers gang.

Other gangs such as Los Choneros, Los Lobos and Los Tiguerones also have a major presence in Ecuador’s prison system, from where gang leaders manage the drug trafficking trade.

Norero’s murder could spark further clashes, the interior ministry saying said, adding “we have to be careful.”

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The country’s overcrowded prisons contain about 35,000 inmates, many of them members of gangs linked to drug trafficking.

A government committee noted in April that Ecuadorian prisons “are considered warehouses of human beings and torture centers.”

Bordered by Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers, Ecuador serves as a departure port for drug shipments, primarily to the United States and Europe.

In a bid to improve the living conditions in Ecuador’s prisons, President Guillermo Lasso launched an inmate census in August.

During a television interview on Monday, he offered “a message of condolence and solidarity with the families of those who died today in (the prison)”.

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International

Peruvian presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra dies in campaign road accident

Presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra, representing the Partido de los Trabajadores y Emprendedores (PTE) in Peru, died in a traffic accident while traveling to a campaign event, local authorities confirmed Sunday.

Becerra, who also served as president of the centrist political party, ranked among the lowest in opinion polls in a crowded field of more than 30 candidates competing in the presidential election scheduled for April 12.

Recent surveys place Rafael López Aliaga at the top of voter preferences.

The accident occurred near the town of Ayacucho, in southern Peru, when the vehicle carrying the candidate overturned for reasons that remain under investigation.

“The candidate Becerra has died,” Balvin Huamani, mayor of the district of Pilpichaca, told RPP radio.

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According to Huamani, he personally transported the 61-year-old candidate to a local health center, where doctors confirmed his death.

The Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE) expressed condolences over Becerra’s passing and wished a speedy recovery to the three people who were traveling with him and were injured in the crash.

International

Noboa intensifies anti-cartel crackdown as violence persists in Ecuador

A close ally of Washington, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has pursued a hardline security strategy against cocaine cartels for more than two years, yet homicide, disappearance and extortion rates remain high across the country.

Between Sunday night and the morning of March 31, Ecuador’s armed forces will launch a “very strong offensive” with “advisory support” from the United States, Interior Minister John Reimberg announced Tuesday.

The government has kept details of the operation confidential and has not confirmed whether U.S. troops will be deployed on Ecuadorian soil, as has occurred at times during Noboa’s administration.

As part of the security measures, residents in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, and El Oro will be subject to a nightly curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time for the next two weeks.

“We are in a war,” Reimberg said, urging citizens to remain indoors. “Do not take risks. Stay home and allow the security forces and our allies to do the work that must be done.”

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Although Ecuador does not produce cocaine, it has become a major departure point for drugs heading to the United States. Meanwhile, the violence associated with trafficking has increasingly affected the local population.

Bordering the world’s largest cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has gone from being considered a relatively peaceful country to recording one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America—52 killings per 100,000 inhabitants—according to the **Observatory of Organized Crime.

International

Peruvian presidential candidate proposes death penalty amid crime surge

Peru is facing an unprecedented surge in crime ahead of its presidential election scheduled for April 12, with violence fueled by extortion networks and a wave of contract killings linked to organized crime.

Police data show that 2,200 homicides tied to organized crime were recorded in 2025, while extortion complaints increased by 19%, underscoring the growing security crisis in the South American nation.

Amid this backdrop, presidential candidate Álvarez has proposed reinstating the death penalty if elected, arguing that extreme measures are needed to curb the violence.

To implement the proposal, Álvarez said Peru would withdraw from the American Convention on Human Rights—also known as the Pact of San José—which the country signed in 1978. The agreement prevents member states that have abolished capital punishment from reinstating it.

Currently, Peruvian law only allows the death penalty in cases of treason during wartime.

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“We have to leave the Pact of San José and apply the death penalty in Peru because those miserable criminals don’t deserve to live,” Álvarez told AFP during a campaign stop at a market in Callao, the port city neighboring Lima.

“An iron fist against those criminals,” he added, proposing to declare hitmen as military targets.

During the campaign event, Álvarez walked through stalls selling vegetables, groceries, and fish, greeting vendors while musicians played cumbia music nearby.

The 62-year-old candidate, who spent more than four decades working in television as a comedian, is a newcomer to politics and is running for president under the País para Todos party.

Polls place him fifth in voter preference with nearly 4% support in a fragmented race featuring 36 candidates.