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

While military control of prisons has dramatically reduced the number of homicides in the country’s prisons, it has exposed administrators to greater risk. The killing of Guayaquil Litoral Penitentiary director María Daniela Icaza earlier this week was the third this year and the second in 10 days.

Prisoners are frisked at the Litoral prison in Guayaquil after the military takeover in early 2024.

Icaza was driving home from her prison office on Thursday when she was shot on a highway near Litoral. A companion was seriously wounded by attackers who remain at large.

Police investigators and prosecutors say the attacks on prison administrators indicate that criminal gangs have changed their tactics. “Earlier this year, criminal organizations controlled prisons through coercion and bribery and defeated other gangs with massacres that killed hundreds of people,” said Raul Sanchez of the Guayaquil Public Prosecutor’s Office. “With the government-ordered militarization of prisons, they have lost that control and have started threatening and killing prison administrators. They are sending a message to the government.”

The Litoral Penitentiary, made up of five independent units, is the largest in the country, with 6,500 inmates. It is also the most violent, with 460 deaths from gangland fighting between late 2020 and early 2024. The complex has also been the scene of dozens of explosions and fires.

According to Sanchez, Litoral was a deadly “playground” for 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 workforce with the military, most of the criminal influence was eliminated and they are angry about that. They are no longer able to carry out the internal assassinations that they used to carry out.”

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

Damián Parrales, director of El Rodeo prison in Portoviejo, was shot dead outside his prison on April 21. The Interior Ministry speculated at the time that the killing was a protest against referendum elections that expanded law enforcement powers and allowed the military to take control of prisons.

On September 2, Álex Guervara, director of Lago Agrio prison in Sucumbíos, was assassinated on a highway near the border with Colombia. Two other prison guards were wounded in the attack.