Quito (AFP) - An armed attack against civilians left four dead on Monday in a coastal region of Ecuador hit by drug trafficking, a day after a mayor escaped an attack in the same province, police reported.
First modification: 02/10/2026 - 13:09
The events occurred in Manabí, one of the main scenes of the bloody dispute for power between drug trafficking gangs, which has made the country one of the most violent in Latin America with 52 murders per 100,000 inhabitants - equivalent to one every hour in 2025 -, a record number, according to the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organized Crime.
Men with rifles opened fire on civilians who were at an artisanal fishermen's berth in the town of San Vicente, according to images released on social networks.
The balance is "four people dead and one person injured," the deputy police chief of Manabí, Colonel Carlos Ortega, informed the press.
The event occurred a day after the mayor of the Manabi town of Rocafuerte, Norberto Vélez, and his wife emerged unharmed from an armed attack while they were traveling in a vehicle.
"Violence will not break us," the mayor's office said in a statement.
Ecuador is located between Colombia and Peru, the world's largest producers of cocaine, and through its strategic ports on the eastern Pacific, 70% of that drug leaves, mainly to the United States and Europe.
The South American nation, a coveted Pacific corridor for drug trafficking, seized some 227 tons of drugs in 2025, according to official figures.
© 2026 AFP
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