Police said that 14 people were killed in clashes between rival criminal gangs over the weekend, at the epicenter of a bloody power battle between narco-gangs.
Police chief Santiago Tuston warned of possible “reprisals”. In one incident, gunmen riding motorcycles opened fire on a crowd outside a grocery store. A child and six adults were killed.
The aftermath of the attack was captured in social media videos, which showed images of dead bodies on the streets of northern Guayaquil.
Tuston stated that the killings in Guayaquil, which were not revealed to be the motive for the murders, numbered 14 people. He did not give details about the other killings.
Guayaquil, the capital of Guayas Province in the southwest of South America, has been under a state of emergency since January. Authorities are trying to curb the spiraling violence that is sweeping the once-peaceful South American nation.
Ecuador has an estimated 20 criminal groups involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, and extortion. They are causing havoc to a nation of 18 million people that is sandwiched between two of the world’s largest cocaine producers: Peru and Colombia.
The rapid expansion of transnational drug cartels, particularly those based in Guayaquil, has thrown the nation into violence over the past few years.
The number of homicides has risen dramatically from six per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 up to 47 at a record high in 2023.
According to official statistics, this figure fell to 38 per 100,000 in the last year under a state-of-emergency and military crackdown initiated by President Daniel Noboa. He has been in office since November 20, 2023. Noboa declared “internal conflict” in January 2024 after a violent wave of violence sparked by a powerful criminal boss’s jailbreak.
Hitmen killed a colonel last Friday who was in charge of anti-drug operations in another part of the port. The police said that Colonel Porfirio Cédeno, the leader of an air force special operation unit, was a passenger in a vehicle taking him to a ceremony.
Noboa seeks a second term after a first round that was inconclusive last Sunday, in which he narrowly edged out Luisa Gonzales.
The president replaced his Interior Minister with retired police chief Fausto Buenano who has extensive experience in fighting narco-gangs.
The military reported last month that a leader from one of Ecuador’s largest crime syndicates, Los Lobos was arrested in his home, located on the coast of Portoviejo. Last year, the U.S. declared Los Lobos as the largest drug-trafficking organization in Ecuador.
