Rival factions of drug trafficking are fighting on a territory in the port city of Guayaquil before a presidential election.
At least 22 people were killed in the Port City of Guayaquil of Ecuador after the rival factions of a drug trafficking gang exchanged gunshots, stressing the aggravation presidential breed.
Three other people were injured in violence, police said in a statement when the death toll went from 19 to 22 on Friday.
The police said that the shooting broke out Thursday after the factions opposed a gang called Los Tigerones, one of the most powerful in this formerly peaceful country, were taken in a dispute.
The newspaper El Universo de Guayaquil described murder as a “massacre”, adding that the gangs were fighting in the territories they control.
According to the newspaper, several houses in the Socio Vivienda district of the city were targeted by at least 20 armed gang members, causing multiple dead.
Images and videos published on X showed several heavily armed men in the District of Socio Vivienda during the attack.
Emergency medical workers have also been seen rushing with people injured for treatment, as dozens of government security forces have been deployed in the region.
The latest deaths have more than 400 the number of people killed in the region in recent months, El Universo reported.
The equator houses around 20 criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking, removal and extortion, wreaking havoc in a country of 18 million people between the world’s largest producers in cocaine, Peru and Colombia.
In recent years, the equator has plunged into violence in the middle of the rapid propagation of transnational cartels that use its ports, like Guayaquil, to send cocaine to the United States and Europe.
The homicides, for example, went from six per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to a record of 47 in 2023.
Experts say gangs constantly mutate and strengthen with the profits of the crime.
Guayaquil is the capital of Guayas, one of the seven provinces where a state of emergency has been in force for two months while the government is fighting gangsters.
Last month, right -wing president Daniel Noboa, who seeks to be re -elected, said that he would ask unpertified allied countries to send special forces to help him wage this fight.
Violence does not let go as the equator is preparing for a Runoff election on April 13 in which Noboa will face the left Luisa Gonzalez.
Noboa had adopted an “iron” approach to suppress violent crimes, in particular by declaring a state of emergency and in deployment of the army in the streets.
Human rights groups claim that the aggressive use of the armed forces has led to abuses, in particular Murder of four boys whose charred bodies have recently been found near an army base.
