Not less than 9 individuals have been shot lifeless Saturday whereas taking part in pool in a vacationer metropolis in southwestern Ecuador, the nation’s prosecutor’s workplace mentioned.
A bunch of armed males opened fireplace on a number of individuals at a bar in a working-class neighborhood of Common Villamil Playas, a coastal metropolis within the southern Guayas province and vacation spot for native vacationers.
The Ecuadorian prosecutor’s workplace mentioned on social media that “armed people entered the institution and shot at these current.”
Authorities mentioned they have been safety digicam footage and cellphone movies in an effort to determine suspects.
In a separate social media publish, the workplace posted a picture of officers on the scene, saying our bodies had been eliminated and ballistic proof retrieved from the scene.
Viral photographs on social media confirmed at the least 9 bloodied our bodies mendacity on the ground round a number of pool tables.
Native media stories mentioned the attackers have been armed with computerized rifles.
On the bar the place the bloodbath occurred, kinfolk held two coffins Saturday evening. Bullet holes have been seen on the pool tables, based on photographs captured by an AFP reporter.
Police Colonel Jhanon Varela instructed media that two individuals have been injured within the assault and handled at an area hospital.
Authorities have solely been in a position to determine one physique on the scene.
“Sadly, when the police arrive, a lot of these affected by this occasion are faraway from the scene by residents and relations,” Varela mentioned. “It’s presumed that there could also be extra victims.”
Guayas Prefect Marcela Aguinaga mentioned one of many victims was a coach at a provincial soccer college.
Aguinaga wrote on social media: “Violence… seeks to carry us to our knees, silence us, and accustom us to horror. However we won’t keep silent. Nor will we give up.”
Wave of violence in Ecuador
The capturing comes as Ecuador experiences its most violent begin to a 12 months in latest historical past, based on consultants.
Within the first 5 months of 2025, Ecuador recorded 4,051 homicides, based on official figures.
Drug trafficking organizations have been multiplying in Ecuador, the place the murder fee rose from six per 100,000 residents in 2018 to 38 per 100,000 in 2024.
Following the recapture in June of the nation’s greatest drug lord, Adolfo Macias, alias Fito, after his escape from a maximum-security jail in 2024, felony gang violence continues unabated.
The Ecuadoran authorities on Sunday extradited Macias to the USA. A seven-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn expenses Macías and an unidentified co-defendant with worldwide cocaine distribution, conspiracy and weapons counts, together with smuggling firearms from the U.S.
A letter filed by the U.S. Division of Justice on Sunday mentioned Macias was resulting from seem in a federal courtroom on Monday “for an arraignment on the superseding Indictment on this case.”
This week, within the western province of Manabi, the stronghold of Fito and his gang Los Choneros, at the least 20 individuals have been killed in lethal violence in a number of cities, together with Manta, the place Fito was recaptured.
Final 12 months, the U.S. labeled Los Choneros as some of the violent gangs and affirmed its connection to highly effective Mexican drug cartels who threaten Ecuador and the encircling area.
Saturday afternoon, Inside Minister John Reimberg introduced elevated safety in Manta, one in all Ecuador’s essential fishing ports, with 2,500 law enforcement officials “deployed at strategic factors.”
As soon as thought of a bastion of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has been plunged into disaster after years of enlargement by transnational cartels that use its ports to ship medication to the USA and Europe.
Earlier this 12 months, a frontrunner of one in all Ecuador’s greatest crime syndicates, Los Lobos, was arrested at his house within the coastal metropolis of Portoviejo. Carlos D, extensively recognized by his alias El Chino, was the second-in-command of Los Lobos and “thought of a high-value goal,” the armed forces mentioned in a press release.
The U.S. final 12 months declared Los Lobos to be the biggest drug trafficking group in Ecuador.
