Ten people were killed and two others were injured in an armed attack that occurred on Saturday night in the coastal city of Guayaquil, in Ecuador, the State Attorney General’s Office reported this Sunday.
On its Twitter account, the Public Ministry reported that it had opened, ex officio, a preliminary investigation “for the murder of 10 people, after an armed attack on Gómez Rendón and 14 streets, southwest of Guayaquil.” With the support of the Police, evidence was collected, including a firearm (rifle type) and others of 9 millimeters.
“Operations are being carried out to locate the alleged perpetrators of the attack, without there being any detainees,” said the Prosecutor’s Office, while the Police have offered to provide more details about the event in the next few hours.
This is the second violent act on the Ecuadorian coast this month, after the one that occurred on April 11, when an armed group opened fire on fishermen who were doing their usual work in a port in Esmeraldas, leaving nine dead.
The wave of violence has unleashed deep concern among the population, which for the past two years has seen the proliferation of news of murders that echo daily in the media and which, according to analysts, seems to have exceeded the control of law enforcement.
Last Friday, the Ecuadorian Defense Minister, Luis Lara, assured that the Armed Forces have reinforced their operations after the State and Public Security Council (Cosepe) declared terrorism a threat to the country and recommended the use of weapons lethal against organized crime.
Lara explained that military operations have been intensified “in the most conflictive areas of the national territory to combat and eradicate criminal groups and their allies that commit terrorist attacks and massacres, complying with the protocols and regulations of international law and current legal provisions.” .