Violence has once again torn through Ecuador’s prison system. In the coastal city of Machala, at least 31 inmates lost their lives after days of unrest inside a penitentiary that has become synonymous with gang warfare. Authorities said 27 bodies were discovered on Sunday, following earlier riots that left four dead and more than 30 others injured, including a police officer.

For years, Ecuador’s prisons have doubled as nerve centres for drug-trafficking groups battling for control of a trade that stretches from the Andes to the Pacific. More than 500 inmates have been killed in internecine clashes since the country’s security crisis began, exposing the weakness of state control behind the walls.

Officials suspect the latest violence may have been triggered by plans to relocate prisoners to a new high-security facility built under President Daniel Noboa’s administration, due to open this month. A similar confrontation in September at the same Machala prison left 13 inmates and a prison worker dead. Each eruption of bloodshed reinforces a bleak truth: Ecuador’s prisons are no longer merely overcrowded; they are outposts in a war the state has yet to win.