Least six people died The same number of people were wounded when gunmen opened fire at a restaurant in the tourist town of Montañita on Ecuador’s Pacific coast, the prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.
From its Twitter account, the institution announced that it was “investigating an armed attack on a food outlet (…) that left six people dead and another six injured.”
The massacre took place on Saturday night in a crowded area of the coastal town. on campus researchers The prosecutor’s office found “firearms, three cell phones and collated shells of controlled substances,” without specifying the victims’ ages or identities.
“We heard noises: pum, pum, pum and people were saying: Run! Run! What Shooting” told about a woman who was near that place at that time Shooting And fearing retribution, he hid his identity.
This is the second massacre to strike Ecuador’s Pacific coast this week. On Thursday, several people entered a funeral home in the neighboring port of Manta and opened fire on attendees in an attack that killed four and wounded eight, according to the prosecutor’s office.
State of exception in Ecuador
The world’s largest producer of cocaine, located between Colombia and Peru, Ecuador It is passing through the worst period of violence in its recent history.
drug trafficking crime It nearly doubled the homicide rate from 2021 to 2022, from 14 to 25 per 100,000 residents.
In response to the wave of violence, conservative President Guillermo Lasso imposed a state of emergency on 1 April in the most affected provinces and cities, including Santa Elena (southwest), where Montanita.
The measure allows the military to mobilize the streets and enforce a curfew. The government also gave the green light to the population to keep and carry weapons for personal defense. However, massacres in public places horrify Ecuadorians.
