On Tuesday, Nine people were killed in Ecuador by around thirty armed attackers who arrived in boats and cars at an artisanal fishing port in the northern province of Esmeraldas., border with Colombia. This day, a video was released of the moment in which the murderers arrived at the place and began the massacre.
The images obtained from a port security camera show the moment when a boat approaches the port and the residents who were in the vicinity of the place begin to flee in the presence of the armed men.
The situation turned chaotic from one moment to the next because, sensing what might happen, the citizens jumped into the water to hidewhile others fled to safer places.
The attackers arrived aboard a precarious boat, armed with assault rifles, long and short weapons, and they descended to the wharf ready to assassinate those who were in the way. Another group of assassins arrived in the town in cars.
The prosecutor’s office confirmed on Twitter “the removal of 7 corpses from the Artisanal Fishing Port of the canton (Esmeraldas) and 2 more in a nearby health center” that were transferred to the forensic center.
Videos broadcast on social networks show the population pulling bodies out of the water while other bloody corpses lie on the ground emeralds, capital of the province of the same name located regarding 300 kilometers north of Quito.
The attack occurred around 9 am, when more than 1,500 people were in the port of this town with an Afro population and on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, explained the Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata.
“We are going to capture them!” assured the right-wing president, Guillermo Lasso, on Twitter.
“Thirty heavily armed people (…) generate these shots in a criminal, delinquent manner,” Minister Zapata said in an interview with the Ecuavisa channel.
According to the head of the portfolio, the attack occurred because the fishermen “preferred the safety” of one of the organized gangs “and in retaliation” a rival group opened fire.
The attackers arrived at the port in two boats and an unknown number of cars, according to the official version. One of the taxis in which they were traveling was abandoned at the port, the Prosecutor’s Office said in another tweet.
The Ecuadorian Navy announced on Twitter a troop deployment to “intensify #military operations by air, sea and land” and “locate” those responsible.
Hours following the attack, the Armed Forces seized “traumatic weapons, revolvers, outboard motors (…) cartridges, bladed weapons” in surrounding areas, according to a message on Twitter.
The armed attack occurred in the midst of a state of emergency decreed by Lasso on March 3 to mitigate the high rates of violence and crime in the province of Esmeraldas, where 53% of the population is poor.
Located between Colombia and Peru, the main cocaine producers in the world, Ecuador faces an increase in drug trafficking and violent deaths.
Its homicide rate has almost doubled in the last year, going from 14 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 to 25 in 2022.