Thirteen inmates died at an Ecuadorian prison over the weekend, bringing 44 inmates to violence in the past month, authorities said on Monday.
The death occurred on Sunday at a prison in the coastal city of Machala in the country’s southwest and is under investigation.
The National Prison Service said in a statement that police discovered the body after an “explosive device exploded” outside the prison.
According to local media reports, the deceased died of suffocation.
Reports said the explosion, about 100 meters (328 feet) from the prison, was caused by a drone used to distract prison guards.
SNAI said an autopsy and “routine procedures” were underway to determine the cause of death.
Last month, 31 inmates died at the same prison, many of them from suffocation, after a deadly armed riot. At the end of September, another 14 people, including a prison guard, died in another armed conflict.
Mass killings are common in Ecuador’s prisons, which have become centers of operations for rival drug gangs. Images of dismembered or burned bodies in prisons regularly go viral on social media.
According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), at least 663 prisoners have died in violent incidents in Ecuadorian prisons since 2020.
President Daniel Noboa advocates a tough policy against organized crime, similar to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who declared the country in a state of internal armed conflict in 2024 to fight drug cartels.
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