Rival factions of drug trafficking gang fight over territory in port city of Guayaquil before a presidential election.
At least 22 people have been killed in Ecuador’s port city of Guayaquil after rival factions of a drug trafficking gang exchanged gunfire, highlighting the worsening law and order situation in the country before a presidential race.
Another three people were wounded in the violence, the police said in a statement as the death toll increased from 19 to 22 on Friday.
Police said the gunfight erupted on Thursday after opposing factions of a gang called Los Tiguerones, one of the most powerful in this formerly peaceful country, were caught in a dispute.
Guayaquil’s El Universo newspaper described the killing as a “massacre”, adding that the gangs were fighting over the territories they control.
According to the newspaper, several homes in the Socio Vivienda district of the city were targeted by at least 20 armed gang members, resulting in the multiple deaths.
Images and videos posted on X showed several heavily armed men running around the district of Socio Vivienda during the attack.
Emergency medical workers were also seen rushing injured people for treatment, as dozens of government security forces were deployed to the area.
The latest deaths bring to more than 400 the number of people killed in the area in recent months, El Universo reported.
Ecuador is home to an estimated 20 criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion, wreaking havoc in a country of 18 million squeezed between the world’s biggest cocaine producers, Peru and Colombia.
In recent years, Ecuador has plunged into violence amid the rapid spread of transnational cartels that use its ports, like Guayaquil, to ship cocaine to the United States and Europe.
Homicides, for example, have risen from six per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to a record 47 in 2023.
Experts say the gangs are constantly mutating and growing stronger with profits from crime.
Guayaquil is the capital of Guayas, one of seven provinces where a state of emergency has been in force for the past two months as the government battles the gangsters.
Last month, the right-wing President Daniel Noboa, who is seeking re-election, said he would ask unspecified allied countries to send special forces to help him wage this fight.
The violence is not letting up as Ecuador gears for a run-off election on April 13 in which Noboa will face leftist Luisa Gonzalez.
Noboa had taken an “iron-fisted” approach to crack down on violent crime, including declaring a state of emergency and deploying the army to the streets.
Human rights groups claim the aggressive use of armed forces has led to abuse, including the murder of four boys whose charred bodies were recently found near an army base.
