Criminal gangs target prison chiefs; Murder of Guayaquil director is the third this year

Although military control of prisons has drastically reduced the number of killings within the country’s prisons, it has put administrators at greater risk. The murder of Guayaquil Litoral Penitentiary director María Daniela Icaza earlier this week was the third this year and the second within 10 days.

Prisoners undergo a search at the Litoral prison in Guayaquil following the military takeover early in 2024.

Icaza was driving home from her prison office Thursday when she was gunned down on a highway near Litoral. A companion was seriously injured by assailants who are still at large.

Police investigators and prosecutors say the attacks on prison administrators indicate that criminal gangs have changed their tactics. “At the beginning of the year, criminal organizations controlled the prisons through coercion and bribery and settled scores with other gangs with massacres that killed hundreds,” said Raul Sanchez of the Guayaquil prosecutors’ office. “With the militarization of prisons ordered by the government, they have lost that control and have turned to threatening and murdering prison administrators. They are sending a message to the government.”

The Litoral Penitentiary, composed of five independent units, is the country’s largest, housing 6,500 inmates. It is also the most violent, recording 460 inmate deaths in gang fights from late 2020 to early 2024. The complex has also been the scene of dozens of explosions and fires.

According to Sanchez, Litoral was the deadly “playground” of gangs and cartels until January, when President Daniel Noboa ordered a military takeover. “Through threats and bribes they were in charge and could bring in weapons, explosives, drugs and prostitutes whenever they wanted,” he said. “By replacing most of the civilian staff with the military, most of the criminal influence was eliminated and they are angry about it. They are no longer able to carry out the internal murders they committed earlier.”

In 2023, before the armed forces assumed control of Litoral, there were 127 inmate murders. Since January of this year, there have been 7.

Damián Parrales, director of the El Rodeo prison in Portoviejo, was shot and killed outside his prison April 21. At the time, the Interior Ministry speculated that the murder was a protest of the referendum election that expanded law enforcement authority and allowed the military to take control of prisons.

On September 2, Álex Guervara, director of the Lago Agrio prison in Sucumbíos, was murdered on a highway near the Colombian border. Two other prison officers were wounded in the attack.