Death count mounts at Guayaquil prison; Despite official denial, Mazar reservoir levels are dropping rapidly; Military assigned to Guayaquil-Cuenca hwy.

Fifteen prisoners were found dead Saturday and Sunday at Guayaquil’s Litoral Prison and government officials say they are unsure of the causes. Officials said the bodies were recovered in seven of the prison’s 12 pavilions and that autopsies are underway.

Long-known for its deadly gang riots, Litoral has recorded more 800 deaths since the beginning of the year. Prison medical staff have disputed claims by outside medical experts that as many as 300 have died of a tuberculosis epidemic but have provided no information to support their case. In addition to deaths due to violence and TB, prison officials say that malnutrition, diseases other than TB, and “undetermined causes” have boosted the death toll.

Soldiers search inmates at the Litoral Prison in Guayaquil in early November following a riot that left three dead.

Human Rights Watch and Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights as well as Ecuador’s Ombudsman Office are demanding to know why sick inmates are not receiving medical care and why others are receiving only one meal, and sometimes no meal, a day.

Based on a petition filed by inmates’ families on December 11, a judge ordered prison officials to provide a plan of remedial action at the facility.

Litoral was designed to accommodate 4,200 inmates. It currently holds 7.235.

Despite official denial, Mazar reservoir is dropping rapidly
Only three days after Energy Minister Inés Manzano announced there was no possibility of power blackouts through early 2026, managers at the Mazar hydroelectric complex said water levels at the Mazar, Sopladora and Paute-Molino reservoirs were dropping rapidly.

Carlos Fajardo, an electrical engineer at the complex said Monday that the Rio Paute flow rate has reached its lowest level of 2025 and that the tributaries of the Rio Paute, including the Rio Tomebamba, are also running low. “The flow of water into the reservoirs is not keeping up with generation usage and evaporation,” he said.

Fajardo said that Mazar reservoir level was 2,149.38 meters above sea level Monday morning, close to its operating minimum of 2,098. “The past month has been extremely dry, and we need rain to replenish the rivers and reservoirs,” he said. “It is not simply the lack of rainfall that is affecting water levels, it is the intense sunshine and low humidity we have experienced in the past three weeks that has increased the evaporation rate.”

Mazar is the country’s largest power generation complex, producing between 35% and 40% of all electricity.

On Friday, Manzano claimed the Mazar reservoir was at 94% capacity, far above the minimum operating level.

Military assigned to Guayaquil-Cuenca highway
Following the Friday night robbery of a passenger van on the Guayaquil- Molleturo-Cuenca highway, the Interior Ministry announced that soldiers are now patrolling the highway near the Guayas-Azuay province border. Friday’s assault, in which 12 passengers were robbed of all their belongings, was the eighth of the year on the highway.

During the attack, which occurred near the Tamarindo sector, highwaymen shot out the van’s tires and assaulted the driver, who was treated at a Guayaquil hospital for an injured arm.

Transport companies have lodged repeated complaints with the government about lack of law enforcement on highways in coastal and littoral provinces. “I am glad they are assigning troops to the route, but they must also be assigned to other highways in the region,” he said. “It is not only passenger transport that is being assaulted by criminals but cargo transport as well. If soldiers are assigned to these routes, we insist that they remain and not be withdrawn in a few weeks, as has happened in the past with police.”