Second mayor murdered in three days in Ecuador

The mayor of Portovelo, a mining town in southern Ecuador, Jorge Maldonado, was murdered on Friday, the Police reported. This is the second homicide in three days of a top municipal authority on the eve of this Sunday’s referendum on reforms to the Constitution to confront organized crime.

The Association of Municipalities of Ecuador (AME) confirmed the death of the politician in a statement. According to local media, the attack occurred around 9:20 a.m. local time (4:20 p.m. CET) this Friday, when alleged hitmen shot Maldonado, who was immediately transferred to a medical center, where death was confirmed. of the.

Maldonado’s murder occurred less than 48 hours after the attack against José Sánchez, mayor of the Camilo Ponce Enríquez canton, located in the southern Andean province of Azuay. Both municipalities -Portovelo and Camilo Ponce- have in common that their territories have the presence of illegal mining activities, in addition to being in transit areas to the Ecuadorian coast, which constitute the main axis of drug trafficking carried out by criminal gangs that They operate in Ecuador.

Less than a month ago, the youngest mayor of Ecuador, Brigitte García, who at 26 years old was in charge of the canton of San Vicente, in the coastal province of Manabí, was also found murdered in a vehicle along with her Communication coordinator.

The murders of Sánchez and Maldonado have also occurred in a crucial week for the Government of Daniel Noboa, which for this Sunday called a referendum to carry out a series of reforms in matters of security, justice and employment. Security issues account for the majority of the eleven questions that make up this plebiscite, with the aim of giving more tools to the authorities to combat organized crime.

Among these issues, the proposal that the Armed Forces permanently support the Police in operations against organized crime stands out, without the need to constantly issue states of exception so that they can fulfill that purpose. Likewise, it proposes increasing penalties for crimes related to organized crime and eliminating possible prison benefits. With these measures, the Noboa Government wants to put a stop to the growing wave of criminal violence that has plagued the country in recent years. Source: news

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