Seven people were killed on Sunday by attackers armed in a billiard room in Santo Domingo, in the northwest of the equator, in full wave of violence in the country, police announced.
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The attackers, armed and hooded, shot several people in the billiard room located in the Santo Domingo bars area, about 160 km west of Quito, according to images broadcast on social networks.
Crime was recorded by security cameras. There are “seven people who died due to firearm fire,” police, which leads the violent act, told the press and identify the officials. “
According to local media, preliminary investigations indicate that these murders could be linked to organized crime in the region.
Ecuador, located between the two main cocaine exporters in the world, Colombia and Peru, has experienced an increase in violence due to the struggles between criminal gangs linked to Mexican and Colombian cartels.
Between January and May, more than 4,000 homicides have been recorded, according to official figures. Analysts consider that this is the most violent beginning of the year in the country’s recent history.
Despite the operations deployed and the establishment of the state of emergency in certain provinces of the country, the firmness policy of the government of Daniel Noboa has not reduced the number of violent deaths in the country.
Last weekend, 14 people were killed in massacres in the agitated province of Guayas, one of the four provinces where Noboa recently declared the state of emergency to combat the violence of the criminal gangs.
On August 10, eight people were killed by attackers who shot a crowd at the exit of a nightclub. The same day, a group of attackers dressed in military uniforms killed six people in a popular district of Guayaquil, the second city of Ecuador and the critical point of the wave of violence that shakes the country.
According to official figures, 73 % of the cocaine produced worldwide transit by Equatorial ports. In 2024, the country entered a record of 294 tonnes of drugs, mainly cocaine, compared to 221 tonnes in 2023.