Officials: Guayaquil bombing was a “declaration of war” by gangs

• Explosion in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil, leaves at least five people dead.
• Blast was a “declaration of war” by criminal gangs against the government, officials say.
• Since October, gang violence in Ecuador has led to the declaration of four emergencies.

Officials from Ecuador’s government attribute organized crime to a tragic explosion that occurred in the port city of Guayaquil.

The blast on Sunday left at least five people dead and 26 more hurt.

It was a “declaration of war” by criminal gangs against the government, according to Ecuador’s interior minister.

The Andean nation, which is utilised as a route for smuggling cocaine from Peru and Colombia, has recently experienced a dramatic increase in homicides and gang-related crime.

The capital of Ecuador and its largest city, Guayaquil, has declared a state of emergency. Since October, gang violence in Ecuador has led to the declaration of four emergencies.

According to the National Risk and Emergency Management Service, the early morning bomb destroyed eight houses and two cars. Photos from the scene show cars with their windows blown out and the fronts of houses torn off.

Officials revealed the attack was targeted at two guys who go by the aliases Cucaracha and Junior and are connected to Los Tiguerones, one of the most important criminal organizations in Ecuador, at a news conference held late on Sunday.

Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo tweeted after the explosion, “Organized crime mercenaries, who have long drugged the economy, now attack with explosives.”

“It is a declaration of war on the state,” he said.

The amount of violence in Guayaquil has been startling, with headless victims dangling from pedestrian bridges and deadly jail riots between rival gangs. Since February 2021, six different riots have resulted in the deaths of around 400 prisoners.

President Guillermo Lasso, who entered office last year, received an open letter from the city’s mayor, Cynthia Viteri, following the explosion.

The letter continues, “Criminal gangs have become a government within a government in Ecuador.”

“We have witnessed people hanging from bridges, murders on motorcycles, rapes at shopping centres and on school buses,” she wrote.

“What else do you want us to do to defend ourselves? A President is the protector of his people, but so far we have not seen a single safe step to combat crime.”

Mr. Lasso declared on Twitter that he would “not allow organised crime to try to run the country,” but he has encountered resistance and criticism for the lack of any significant change.

According to Insight Crime, Guayaquil is the 50th most dangerous city in the world. According to the website for investigative journalism, Ecuador’s homicide rate rose more quickly than that of any other nation in Latin America or the Caribbean in 2021.

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