Armed men kill 7 people in the pool hall in Ecuador weeks after the massacre in another pool hall

The gunmen shot at least seven people in a pool hall in the Equatorial City of Santo Domingo, police said Sunday, in the last horrifying massacre of the country in the midst of very high violence of gang.

“Seven people died of gunshot wounds” in a pool hall in the nightlife district of Santo Domingo, about 93 miles west of the capital Quito, said the National Police in a WhatsApp group with journalists.

Police said they were investigating the incident and hunting those responsible.

The alleged images of the safety chamber of the massacre that circulate online showed several attackers with black masks open to two men standing at the entrance of the pool room, sending the pedestrians fighting.

Then, the gunmen entered the hall and continued shooting, fleeing before a police vehicle approached.

News has not yet independent the footage.

According to local media, preliminary investigations indicated that murders may be related to organized crime in the region.

TO massacre similar to pool hall Last month it took place in the tourist city of the southwest of General Villamil Playas, leaving at least nine dead. And in April, armed men killed 12 people in a ring of rooster fights about 30 kilometers from Santo Domingo.

Once considered a bastion of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has been sunk in crisis after years of expansion by transnational posters that use their ports to send drugs to the United States and Europe.

Drug trafficking organizations have multiplied in Ecuador, where the homicide rate increased from six per 100,000 residents in 2018 to 38 per 100,000 in 2024.

Between January and May, there were more than 4,051 homicides, according to official figures. Analysts say it is the most violent beginning for a year in the recent history of the country.

The government of President Daniel Nemaa has promised to take energetic measures against crime, but despite generalized operations and constant emergency states, there has been little reduction in violence.

Only last weekend, 14 people were killed in massacres in the problematic province of Guayas, one of the four provinces in which Novoa recently declared an emergency state to combat the violence of gangs.

At the end of July, armed attackers killed at least 17 civilians, including a child, and wounded 14 in two attacks during the night in the splicing, Ecuador, the authorities said.

The gangs that compete for the control of drug trafficking routes in Ecuador have taken advantage of the country’s strategic location, their economy based on the US dollar and the corruption of some authorities.

The violence of the criminal gangs continues incessantly after the recovery in June of the country’s largest drug trafficker, Adolfo Macíasaka Fito, after its escape from a maximum security prison in 2024.

The Ecuadorian Government last month extradited Macías to the United States and he He declared himself innocent.

An accusation of seven non -sealed positions in Brooklyn accuses Macías, who leads the Los Choneros gang, and an unidentified coaccusado with the international distribution of cocaine, conspiracy and arms count, including the smuggling of firearms in the United States.

Last year, the United States classified the Choneros as one of the most violent gangs and affirmed their connection with powerful Mexican drug cartels who threaten Ecuador and the surrounding region.

Earlier this year, a leader of one of the largest crimes unions in Ecuador, the wolves, was arrested at home in the coastal city of Portoviejo. Carlos D, widely known for his alias El Chino, was the second in command of the wolves and “considered a target of high value,” the armed forces said in a statement.

He United States last year declared Lobos Be the largest drug trafficking organization in Ecuador.

According to official figures, 73% of world cocaine production passes through Ecuadorian ports.

In 2024, the country took a record of 294 tons of drugs, mainly cocaine, compared to 221 tons in 2023.

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