At least 9 people shot dead while playing pool at bar in Ecuador tourist city: "There may be more victims"

CBS News

6 days ago

At least nine people were shot dead Saturday while playing pool in a tourist city in southwestern Ecuador, the country's prosecutor's office said.
A group of armed men opened fire on several people at a bar in a working-class neighborhood of General Villamil Playas, a coastal city in the southern Guayas province and destination for local tourists.
The Ecuadorian prosecutor's office said on social media that "armed individuals entered the establishment and shot at those present."
Authorities said they were looking at security camera footage and cell phone videos in an effort to identify suspects.
In a separate social media post, the office posted an image of officers at the scene, saying bodies had been removed and ballistic evidence retrieved from the scene.
Viral images on social media showed at least nine bloodied bodies lying on the floor around several pool tables.
Local media reports said the attackers were armed with automatic rifles.
At the bar where the massacre occurred, relatives held two coffins Saturday night. Bullet holes were visible on the pool tables, according to images captured by an AFP reporter.
Police Colonel Jhanon Varela told media that two people were injured in the attack and treated at a local hospital.
Authorities have only been able to identify one body at the scene.
"Unfortunately, when the police arrive, many of those affected by this event are removed from the scene by residents and family members," Varela said. "It is presumed that there may be more victims."
Guayas Prefect Marcela Aguinaga said one of the victims was a coach at a provincial soccer school.
Aguinaga wrote on social media: "Violence... seeks to bring us to our knees, silence us, and accustom us to horror. But we will not stay silent. Nor will we surrender."
The shooting comes as Ecuador experiences its most violent start to a year in recent history, according to experts.
In the first five months of 2025, Ecuador recorded 4,051 homicides, according to official figures.
Drug trafficking organizations have been multiplying in Ecuador, where the homicide rate rose from six per 100,000 residents in 2018 to 38 per 100,000 in 2024.
Following the recapture in June of the country's biggest drug lord, Adolfo Macias, alias Fito, after his escape from a maximum-security prison in 2024, criminal gang violence continues unabated.
The Ecuadoran government on Sunday extradited Macias to the United States. A seven-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn charges Macías and an unidentified co-defendant with international cocaine distribution, conspiracy and weapons counts, including smuggling firearms from the U.S.
A letter filed by the US Department of Justice on Sunday said Macias was due to appear in a federal court on Monday "for an arraignment on the Superseding Indictment in this case."
This week, in the western province of Manabi, the stronghold of Fito and his gang Los Choneros, at least 20 people were killed in deadly violence in several cities, including Manta, where Fito was recaptured.
Last year, the U.S. classified Los Choneros as one of the most violent gangs and affirmed its connection to powerful Mexican drug cartels who threaten Ecuador and the surrounding region.
Saturday afternoon, Interior Minister John Reimberg announced increased security in Manta, one of Ecuador's main fishing ports, with 2,500 police officers "deployed at strategic points."
Once considered a bastion of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has been plunged into crisis after years of expansion by transnational cartels that use its ports to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.
Earlier this year, a leader of one of Ecuador's biggest crime syndicates, Los Lobos, was arrested at his home in the coastal city of Portoviejo. Carlos D, widely known by his alias El Chino, was the second-in-command of Los Lobos and "considered a high-value target," the armed forces said in a statement.
The U.S. last year declared Los Lobos to be the largest drug trafficking organization in Ecuador.