An armed group of 30 people kills nine fishermen in northern Ecuador

For still unknown reasons, a group of armed criminals killed nine artisanal fishermen that they were at a location in the port area of ​​Esmeraldas in northern Ecuador, Interior Minister Juan Zapata said on Tuesday. That city is the one with the highest number of crimes in the country.

In statements to the Ecuavisa television channel, he assured that the indications indicate that the fishermen have paid security to a group of criminals and “in retaliation another group generates this problem, the police have never been alerted to act”.

He added that joint police and military operations are being carried out to “respond as the state must respond, so that the strength of the state is felt”.

in boats

It’s a statement specified that about 30 attackers They arrived by boat and 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. Officers found 200 ballistics evidence at the scene, he said.

Police said at least two victims were rescued from the sea because they jumped into the water to avoid the attack, which also left several 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 has assured that in the face of the violent events that have taken place in Esmeraldas, its operational units “They are deployed to identify those responsible of this criminal act”.

A combined force of police and military arrived at the scene to deal with the emergency efthe fishermen have been evacuated and local merchants.

hot zone

According to a publication from the Esmeraldas mayor’s office, there have been 416 deaths so far this year, with which the homicide rate it stands at 63.03 per 100,000 inhabitants and became 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 and are exported from Ecuadorian ports, so both the sea 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 largest cocaine producers, Ecuador faces rising drug trafficking and violent deaths.

The nation’s homicide rate has nearly doubled in the past year, from 14 per 100,000 population in 2021 to 25 in 2022.