Gilberto Chamba

Known as The Monster of Machala, he was convicted of several murders in south-west Ecuador, but was released under an amnesty, and moved to Spain where he committed another murder. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison in Spain on November 5, 2006.

In September 2004, Chamba gained employment as a parking attendant at the entertainment complex Illa de I 'Oci, located near the Law Faculty of the University of Lleida. There he served not only as a caretaker, but also assisted the workers who cleaned the movie theaters.

Gilberto was arrested on December 1, 2004, accused of having raped and murdered María Isabel Bascuñana, a law student in Lleida.

Thanks to the testimony of a sex worker, one of the two women who survived his attack, criminal proceedings could be initiated against Chamba. He was accused of murdering eight women and raping two. Among his victims were two minors. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. However, he served only 7 of these years, as he benefited from a law which reduced the sentences of well-behaved prisoners by half, and received another year's reduction due to the Great Jubilee in 2000.

On November 9, 2000, after serving his sentence and having his police record cleaned – a legal right only possible in Ecuador – Chamba, who until then was married and had daughters with his wife Mariela, decided to move to Spain. He took a flight to Amsterdam, and from there he traveled to the Barajas airport in Madrid, where two of his sisters were waiting for him.

He owned a taxi in which, from 1988 to 1993, he toured the streets of Machala apparently in search of customers but secretly targeting unaccompanied young female students.

Gilberto Antonio Chamba Jaramillo (born 1963) is an Ecuadorian serial killer, convicted of murdering nine people in Ecuador and Spain.