Mayor Shot Killed and 96 Wardens Taken Hostage, President of Ecuador Declares a State of Emergency

JAKARTA - Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso on Monday declared a state of emergency and a curfew in three coastal provinces, amid a weekend wave of violence in the Andean country that left at least eight people dead.

President Lasso declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Manabi and Los Rios as well as in the city of Duran, near Guayaquil, after the Mayor of Manta Agustin Intriago was shot dead Sunday.

This also followed a weekend riot at the Penitenciaria del Litoral prison, Guayaquil, which involved gang clashes within the prison.

President Lasso frequently declared states of emergency as Ecuador battled prison riots and waves of violence across the country.

"We cannot deny that organized crime has infiltrated the country, political organizations, and society itself, this is a problem that has existed for more than a decade," President Lasso said after a security cabinet meeting, reported by Reuters, July 25.

The state of emergency will last for 60 days in the provinces and cities, while curfews will vary during that period, the government said.

Earlier, police said the late Intriago, 38, who was re-elected mayor of Manta in February, was inspecting public works in the city at the time of the attack.

Regional police commander Edwin Noguera told reporters a gunman got out of a stolen truck and opened fire on the Intriago, hitting himself and a woman he described as "additional victims". Both died of their injuries.

Security officers returned fire and injured the driver of the vehicle, who is in police custody while receiving medical treatment at a hospital. Noguera said the man was a Venezuelan citizen with no previous criminal record. The suspected shooter fled, Noguera said.

The murder of Mayor Manta is also being investigated, President Lasso said.

Meanwhile, the rioting on Sunday killed at least six inmates and injured 11 others, according to prison authority SNAI.

The inmates also took 96 wardens hostage at prisons in Cotopaxi, Azuay, Cañar, El Oro and Napo, and continued a hunger strike that began Sunday in 13 Ecuadorian prisons, without disclosing the reasons for the strikes.

While the South American country's prison system has faced structural problems for decades, prison violence has soared since 2021, killing at least 400 people in frequent confrontations that have caught the attention of the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.