Endless violence in Ecuador: more than 20 murders in the last weekend

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Violent crimes continue in Ecuador, especially in the cities on the Ecuadorian coast. So far this year, in zone 8, which includes Guayaquil, Samborondón, and Durán, more than 720 violent deaths have been recorded.

This weekend alone, there have been at least two dozen deaths and the discovery of bodies with signs of torture. Last Sunday night, for example, a bundle was thrown from a vehicle on the shore of the Salado estuary in Guayaquil.

The neighbors of the area were not alarmed because it is common for garbage bags to be thrown in the area; however, the shape of the bundle caught their attention, and they alerted the police.

The police officers discovered that rolled up in the bundle was a man bound and wrapped in sheets. He had no bullet wounds or stab wounds, but he did have two contusions on his head and a cut on his eyebrow, reported El Universo.

Authorities presume that the dead man was a driver who had been the victim of express kidnapping, also known as “paseo millonario” (“millionaire ride”), which refers to a form of extortive kidnapping.

The man would have resisted the robbery of his vehicle. The criminals beat him to death, according to Lieutenant Colonel Alex Ganchala, from the Esteros district, who participated in the body’s recovery. The victim has not yet been identified, as no identity document was found.

Only over the weekend, at least ten murder victims arrived at the Guayaquil morgue, including two men who were shot Sunday night, one in the Cooperative Guerreros del Fortin and another in the Cooperative Enner Parrales, both areas, just 2.6 kilometers apart, are located in the northwest of the port city.

Also, last Saturday, the body of a teenager who disappeared a week ago in Ciudad Victoria, northwest of Guayaquil, was discovered. Although the family undertook an intense search, they did not find the girl alive.

When the authorities found the body, they recognized traces of torture, it was also in a state of decomposition, and the skull was deformed. The police believe there was sexual abuse, but they are still waiting to confirm this hypothesis after the rigorous examinations.

In Machala, south of the Ecuadorian coast, a worker found several abandoned black bags on a city road. The man alerted the police, who discovered two dismembered bodies inside the bags. The bodies correspond to a man and a woman.

The police reported that the extremities of the victims were in the bags and that the man’s head was not found. The criminalistics agents indicated that, although the personnel searched for the missing head, they had no luck. In the case of the woman, her limbs were mutilated, and she was semi-naked.

With these deaths, only between Friday and Saturday, six violent deaths were registered in Machala. The police assure that the murders are part of a turf war between criminal groups.

In Esmeraldas, on the northern border of Ecuador and where a special security zone was declared to regain control of the place where the inhabitants cannot live in peace, the murder of a tourist businessman was recorded.

The man was shot by two men who arrived at a sports field and fled after shooting him several times. The victim was also an advisor to the city’s mayor and director of the socialist party in Esmeraldas. Those who knew him say he received threats days before the murder.

Last weekend, on the other hand, in Santo Domingo, 152 kilometers from Quito, five murders were registered in less than 24 hours.

With information from Infobae