It was in the port area of Esmeraldas. In that city it is the one that registers the highest number of crimes in the country. The reasons are unknown.
For reasons that are still unknown, a group of armed criminals murdered nine artisanal fishermen who were in a place in the port area of Esmeraldas in northern Ecuador, Interior Minister Juan Zapata reported on Tuesday. That city is the one that registers the highest number of crimes in the country.
In statements to the Ecuavisa television channel, he assured that the indications indicate that the fishermen paid security to a group of criminals and “in retaliation another group generates this issue, the police were never alerted to take action.”
He added that joint police and armed forces operations are being carried out to “respond as the State has to respond, so that the force of the State is felt.”
in boats
It’s a statement, specified that around 30 attackers They arrived in boats and in a taxi and opened fire on fishermen, merchants, and workers who were in warehouse 28 of the Artisanal Port of that city, located 183 kilometers northwest of the capital. The agents found 200 ballistic evidence at the scene, he said.
The police said that at least two victims were rescued from the sea because they jumped into the water to avoid the attack, which also left several people injured. The number of injured could not be established because they were immediately transferred to nearby hospitals, police added.
In its Twitter account, the force assured that in the face of the violent events that took place in Esmeraldas, its operational units “They are deployed in order to locate those responsible of this criminal act.”
A combined force of police and military came to the scene to attend to the emergency and fthe fishermen were evacuated and merchants in the area.
hot zone
According to a publication by the Esmeraldas mayor’s office, so far this year there have been 416 deaths, with which the homicide rate stands at 63.03 per 100,000 inhabitants and has become one of the most violent in the country.
The province of Esmeraldas is on the border with Colombia, where important shipments of cocaine come from that are exported from Ecuadorian ports, so both maritime and land routes have become disputed areas that the government attributes to violent criminal gangs dedicated to drug trafficking, extortion and other crimes.
Sandwiched between Colombia and Peru – the world’s top cocaine producers – Ecuador faces rising drug trafficking and violent deaths.
In the nation, the homicide rate almost doubled in the last year, going from 14 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 to 25 in 2022.
Source: AP and AFP
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