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At least 14 people, including a child, were killed in Ecuador on Sunday following two separate shootings by armed assailants, as the country continues to struggle with a surge in violence driven by drug trafficking gangs.
Police in the southwestern coastal town of El Empalme reported that the initial attack left 12 people dead and three others wounded.
The gunmen, who were travelling in two pickup trucks, later opened fire on a second group nearby, killing two more individuals.
“They opened fire on everyone,” said Major Oscar Valencia, head of the local police. He confirmed that a 12-year-old boy was among the victims. Officers recovered at least 40 bullet casings at the scene.
The victims were targeted near a liquor store, where the bodies remained sprawled in a covered entrance. Across the street, devastated relatives gathered on the pavement, mourning the dead.
The latest killings add to an already grim tally in Ecuador, which has recorded 4,051 homicides in the first five months of 2025 alone, according to official statistics.
Just a week earlier, nine people were gunned down while playing pool in a bar in the tourist town of General Villamil, also in the southwest.
President Daniel Noboa declared a state of war against organised crime early last year. Since then, Ecuador, once one of Latin America’s most peaceful nations, has become one of its most dangerous, with a homicide rate of 38 per 100,000 people in 2024.
The country’s descent into violence has been fuelled by the growing influence of international drug cartels, who use Ecuadorian ports to export narcotics to North America and Europe. Authorities say that 73 per cent of the world’s cocaine production transits through Ecuador.
In 2024, Ecuador seized a record 294 tonnes of drugs, mostly cocaine, up from 221 tonnes the previous year. Despite these efforts, the escalating violence suggests that the country remains gripped by criminal networks locked in fierce territorial disputes.
