There are at least nine people dead After a shooting in Esmeraldas, Ecuador Many people were injured in the incident that took place on Tuesday morning at the Craftsman Fishing Port.
According to the Ecuadorian National Police, about 30 armed men went to port around 09:30 (local time) by two boats and a taxi and shot inside the three buildings of the port before escaping by seareports Ecuavisa. Authorities confirmed that the whereabouts of the attackers is currently unknown, so they deployed several patrols in the area to find them and began investigating the port.
Interior Minister Juan Zapata confirmed the operation on his Twitter account and said, “We will not allow these acts to go unpunished. We are fighting organized crime by force!” In an interview with the aforementioned media, Zapata explained that according to preliminary information, the attack was the work of an organized armed group, not another group that appears to be providing protection to the fishermen. It was also stated that there were nearly 200 ballistic evidences of different types of weapons at the crime scene.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims, mostly fishermen and traders, and assured them, “We will not rest until we arrest them.” catch them!”
Esmeraldas province has been a target for several months. a wave of violence perpetrated by armed criminal groups. To combat this, the President declared a state of emergency in the region in early March. According to the Ecuadorian president, in the first months of 2023 the state was the scene of murders, assassinations and hitmen, “structuring one of the states with the highest levels of insecurity in Ecuador”.