According to the official account of Ecuador’s attorney general’s office, the attack was carried out by a heavily armed group of around 20 people, whose identities are being established. An abandoned taxi used by the hijackers was found at the crime scene. In addition, two fast boats were used.
It is said that the experts found the bodies of 7 dead directly in a small fishing port, and two others died in a nearby medical center.
And although there were no official versions of the reasons for the incident, local media suggest that it was the revenge of one of the criminal groups on the fishermen, who preferred to pay a another gang for their safety.
It should be noted that the massacre in the fishing port occurred during the state of emergency imposed by Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso on March 3 in the entire province of Esmeraldas due to an unprecedented rampant crime. Then, similar measures were taken with regard to the main port of the country, Guayaquil, from the adjacent areas of Duran and Samborondon, as well as the western provinces of Santa Elena and Los Rios.
The crime situation in Ecuador remains extremely tense. Over the past year, the country’s homicide rate has actually doubled, from 14 per 100,000 people in 2021 to 25 in 2022. In many ways, rampant banditry is a consequence of the country being become one of the main logistical hubs for the supply of drugs from neighboring Colombia and Peru to the global illicit drug market. According to official figures, the Ecuadorian authorities confiscated in 2021 210 tons of drugs that the criminals intended to send to Europe. In 2022 – an additional 200 tons.
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