Eight Dead In More Suspected Gang Violence In Ecuador

Quito, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Jun, 2023 ) :Eight people died Sunday in Ecuador in the third suspected gang-related shooting this month, police said.

Another five people were wounded in the violence in the Pacific coast town of La Concordia, police told news outlets in a WhatsApp chat group.

Ecuador is enduring a surge in violence as rival cocaine trafficking gangs fight over turf and supply routes.

The violence that is at times gruesome in nature, with people beheaded or set on fire, has left hundreds dead in recent years in the streets and prisons.

In the latter, gangs have fought each other viciously in some of the worst prison massacres in all of Latin America.

Last Monday, six people were killed and eight wounded in an apparent gang shootout in Guayaquil, a port city that is the hardest hit by drug-related violence.

Guayaquil, on Ecuador's southern Pacific coast, is the country's largest city, biggest port and economic hub.

The location of the city, home to three million of Ecuador's 18 million people, makes it a strategic launch point for shipments of drugs to the United States and Europe.

On June 4, an attack at a home in that same city left five dead, including a police officer.