Crime: Assassination attempt in Ecuador – mayor of big city dead

crime
Assassination attempt in Ecuador – Mayor of big city dead

The mayor of the Ecuadorian city of Manta, Agustín Intriago, has been killed. Intriago was the victim of an assassination, President Guillermo Lasso wrote on Twitter. The background was initially unclear.

Interior Minister Juan Zapata tweeted that it was an armed attack. There was a second fatality and four injured – two of them are in police custody for alleged involvement in the crime in a clinic. The public prosecutor reported an arrest.

The identity of the second dead was not initially disclosed – according to media reports, it was a woman. Among other things, the newspaper “El Universo” reported that Intriago was shot early Sunday afternoon when he was visiting the site of a planned construction project.

Ecuador suffers from wave of violence

According to a report by the local portal “La Marea”, several men had hit the vehicle and opened fire. According to the reports, Intriago was initially taken to a hospital and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

According to the media, Intriago was 38 years old and the father of two children. The lawyer won a second term as head of government in elections in February as a candidate for the local alliance “Mejor Ciudad” (Better City). Manta is a port city on the Pacific with more than 200,000 inhabitants.

The South American country is suffering from a spate of violence mostly attributed to drug smuggling gangs. The murder rate of around 25 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants last year was the highest in the history of the Andean country and one of the highest in Latin America. Lasso wrote that he had instructed the chief of the National Police to deploy as many officers as necessary to find those responsible for the assassination.

dpa

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