 "Guayaquil bloodshed: 22 killed in gang battle amid Ecuador’s crackdown on crime")
Twenty-two people were killed in gunfights in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, on Thursday, in what police described as a possible clash between rival factions of the Los Tiguerones criminal gang vying for control of a neighborhood.
The violence comes as President Daniel Noboa, who is seeking reelection in an April runoff, has ramped up security operations in the country’s most violent regions as part of his declared war on drug gangs.
In a statement late Thursday, the National Police said that some of the victims had prior convictions for robbery, drug trafficking, and weapons possession.
Ecuador is grappling with an estimated 20 criminal gangs engaged in drug trafficking, kidnapping, and extortion, causing widespread chaos in the nation of 18 million people. Situated between Peru and Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producers, Ecuador has become a key transit point for drug shipments.
Last month, Ecuadorian President Noboa took another step in his effort to enlist foreign military assistance to combat the drug cartels and organized crime groups that have been behind the escalation in violent crime over the past four years.
The spike in violence across the South American country is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. Mexican, Colombian and Balkan cartels have set down roots in Ecuador and operate with assistance from local criminal gangs.
Under Noboa’s watch, the homicide rate dropped from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 38.76 per 100,000 people last year. But the rate remained far higher than the 6.85 per 100,000 people in 2019, and the country is already on track to exceed that number this year. January was Ecuador’s deadliest month on record, with 731 homicides.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsExperts warn that these gangs are evolving and growing more powerful, fueled by profits from illegal activities. Guayaquil, the capital of Guayas province, is one of seven regions under a state of emergency for the past two months as the government intensifies its crackdown on gang violence.
With inputs from agencies
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