At least one dead from another armed attack in Quito
At least six people have died and eight people have been injured after a shooting by armed men in the neighborhood of El Guasmo, located in the coastal city of Guayaquil, in a new surge of violence in the Latin American country.
According to preliminary investigations, several armed men opened fire from a black vehicle at dawn on Sunday. Among the deceased there is a child under the age of 15 and a young man of 19, while among the injured there are two brothers aged 15 and 10, Ecuavisa has collected.
In another separate incident, the National Police has reported on its official Twitter profile at dawn of armed clashes in the Comité del Pueblo parish, north of Quito, which have resulted in one death and two houses damaged by a fire, according to the first investigations, has collected the newspaper ‘El Comercio’.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency in Esmeraldas in March in an attempt to stem the wave of violence perpetrated by armed crime groups that the province is facing.
During the first months of 2023, Ecuador has suffered an upsurge in armed violence with the commission of homicides, assassinations, and hit men. According to the 2022 data collected by the specialized portal Insight Crime, Ecuador registered a homicide rate of 25.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in Latin America.