In one year, this is the fifth Ecuadorian mayor assassinated and the third in less than a month, in a country plagued by drug trafficking and criminal groups.
:quality(50)/2023/07/06/64a68815cd1a7_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 1 min
:quality(50)/2024/04/19/000-34pu7ta-6622daae8087a603763887.jpg)
This is the second crime of its kind in three days in a country plagued by drug trafficking and criminal groups. The mayor of a mining town in southern Ecuador was assassinated on Friday April 19, police announced. “This morning, Jorge Maldonado, mayor of the canton of Portovelo, #ElOro, was the victim of gunfire which caused his death,” she told the social network X. Jorge Maldonado was killed by “two criminals riding a motorcycle, while carrying out personal activities” in a district of Portovelo, according to the police. This is the fifth Ecuadorian mayor assassinated in a year and the third in less than a month.
On Wednesday, the councilor of another small mining town in the south of the country, Camilo Ponce Enriquez, in the province of Azuay, was shot dead. In March, the young mayor of San Vicente, in the province of Manabi, was assassinated in similar circumstances.
Plagued by drug trafficking, but also corruption, Ecuador has been facing a serious security crisis caused by criminal gangs since mid-January. Daniel Noboa, elected in November for 18 months at the head of the country, declared the country in “internal armed conflict” and deployed the army to neutralize around twenty of these groups. Since then, at least a dozen politicians or local officials have been assassinated. This new assassination comes two days before a referendum and a national consultation, requested by President Daniel Noboa, on reforms aimed at fighting organized crime.
