An attack with explosives leaves at least five dead and 16 injured in Ecuador | International

The atmosphere of insecurity in Guayaquil has intensified this morning with an attack with explosives in a popular neighborhood of the Ecuadorian city that has caused the death of five people and injured 16 others. The attack has been of such magnitude, around at two in the morning, that at least nine houses have been destroyed, according to the first official figures raised by the Risk Management Service of Ecuador. Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo has attributed the first major attack against civilians to organized crime. The president, Guillermo Lasso, has extended his condolences to the relatives of the victims and has said that he is analyzing the measures that he will take with his Security Cabinet.

“It is a declaration of war against the State”, he has published through Twitter, the channel through which official information about the attack has been transmitted this Sunday morning. “Organized crime mercenaries, who have drugged the economy for a long time, now attack with explosives,” said Carrillo, who has also called for unity to confront crime, “or the price will be even higher for society.”

The first testimonies assure that subjects on a motorcycle appeared at dawn in the southern sector of Guayaquil, a low-income residential area, and after shooting several times, they threw a sack that later exploded and left what is known as Calle 8 with a scene of debris. , fallen cables and dense dust. Carrillo has offered a $10,000 reward for information about the attack.

It is not the first attack with explosives in Ecuador in recent years, which has registered attacks on police barracks or military detachments, but it is the first such threat against residential areas. Last February, also in Guayaquil, two bodies appeared hanging from a bridge. The authorities then also attributed it to the action of organized crime, related to drug trafficking.

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