Before the presidential election, the rival ions of drug trafficking gangs fight over the territory of Guayaquil’s port city.
At least 22 people were killed in the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil after rival facts of drug-crowded gangs exchanged a shootout, highlighting the country’s worsening law and order situation before the presidential election.
Three more people were injured in violence, police said in a statement that the death toll rose from 19 to 22 on Friday.
Police said the shootout erupted Thursday after opposing a gang faction called the Ross Tigron, the once peaceful country’s most powerful.
The El Universo newspaper in Guayaquil described the murder as a “genocide,” adding that gangs were fighting the territory they controlled.
According to the newspaper, several homes in the city’s Socio Vienda district were targeted by at least 20 armed gang members, resulting in multiple deaths.
Images and videos posted to X show several heavily armed men running around the Socio Vivienda district during the attack.
They also saw emergency medical workers rushing to treat injured people as dozens of government security forces were deployed in the area.
The latest deaths have resulted in more than 400 people killed in the area in recent months, Elle Uniform reported.
Ecuador has an estimated 20 criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking, temptation and terror, causing chaos in a country of 18 million people between Peru and Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producers.
In recent years, Ecuador has plunged into violence amid the rapid spread of transnational cartels using ports like Guayaquil to ship cocaine to the US and Europe.
For example, murders rose from 6 per 6 per 100,000 in 2018 to a record 47 in 2023.
Experts say gangs are constantly mutating and becoming stronger due to profits from crime.
Guayaquil is the capital of Guayas and is one of seven states where emergency situations have been in effect for the past two months as the government fights gangs.
Last month, right-wing President Daniel Novore, who is seeking re-election, said he would ask his unspecified allies to send special forces to support the fight.
The violence has not lost Ecuadorian equipment due to the April 13 leak election. There, Novoa will face leftist Luisa Gonzalez.
Novore had adopted a “iron-filled” approach to cracking down on violent crime, including declaring a state of emergency and deploying troops on the streets.
Human rights groups argue that active use of the military has led to abuse. This includes the murder of four boys, whose burnt bodies were recently discovered near a soldier.
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