2024-03-31 20:07:03
The Ministry of the Interior of Ecuador reported in the last hours of Saturday that at least eight people died and another eight were injured in an armed attack south of Guayaquil, the most populated city in the country, within the framework of a series of violent events that They increase despite the validity of the state of emergency.
The attack occurred on Saturday night in a populated neighborhood in the south of Guayaquil, 270 kilometers southwest of the capital, Quito. There, according to witness accounts, around 7 p.m. (local time), several armed individuals arrived in the area in a vehicle and shot at a group of people.
As a consequence, and as recorded in different videos broadcast on social networks, the shots killed two of the victims at the time, while another six died when they were being treated at a health center due to the “seriousness of the wounds.” This was indicated by the Ministry. “Preliminarily, a figure of eight dead and eight injured is estimated,” the report added.
In response, a police cordon was deployed for the injured who are admitted to the health home while the procedures are carried out to clarify this fact.
This new massacre occurs a day after, in another coastal province, Manabí, about 20 armed individuals kidnapped 11 people and murdered five of them. The Police reported that the other six, including five minors, were rescued and handed over to their families. Two alleged suspects were arrested on Saturday morning according to a police report.
The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, stated earlier in his official X account that what happened in Manabí, “remember that the battle continues.” This is “a sign that narcoterrorism and its allies are looking for spaces to scare us, but they will not succeed,” he said.
Thus, Ecuador faces a new escalation of violence that occurs in the midst of a state of emergency and an internal armed conflict decreed in early January by Noboa and which has permanent operations of a security bloc made up of the police and military. In addition, a five-hour curfew is in force in high-incidence points such as Guayaquil.
A week ago, a young mayor of a small city, also from Manabí, was murdered along with her collaborator, while on Thursday a riot in a Guayaquil prison under military and police control left three inmates murdered and four injured.
At the end of 2023, Ecuador surpassed a rate of 40 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the region, according to police information.
