SHOOTOUT AT ECUADOR NIGHTCLUB KILLS 8 AMID RISING VIOLENT CRIME. (PHOTO).

Shootout at Ecuador nightclub kills 8 amid rising violent crime, police say

A shooting at a nightclub in Ecuador’s rural Santa Lucía area on Sunday left eight people dead and three others injured, authorities reported. The incident occurred in Guayas province, one of the country’s most violent regions. Seven victims, aged between 20 and 40, died at the scene, while the eighth succumbed to injuries at a hospital.

Officials said heavily armed assailants arrived on motorcycles and two vehicles, though the motive for the attack remains unclear. This shooting follows a deadly assault on a boat near El Oro province two days earlier, where four people were killed and several remain missing after suspects used explosives.

Recent months have seen a surge in violence across Ecuador’s coastal provinces—El Oro, Guayas, Manabí, and Los Ríos—all under a state of emergency. Authorities attribute the spike in killings to rivalries among organized crime groups tied to transnational drug cartels, especially active in the Pacific region, which is a key drug trafficking route to Central America, the U.S., and Europe.

Last month, nine people were killed during a pool game in a southwestern tourist city. Ecuador has already recorded more than 4,600 homicides so far this year, following a 2024 total of nearly 7,000 and a record 8,000 in 2023. To combat the rise in drug-related violence, the government declared a 60-day state of emergency in April across seven provinces, including the capital, Quito.