The mayor of a small mining town in southern Ecuador was shot dead on Wednesday, authorities confirmed at a time when the police and military are carrying out permanent operations to quell what the government calls an “internal armed conflict.”
In a statement, the municipality of the town of Ponce Enríquez reported the death of José Sánchez “in an act of violence” in which he was shot, without specifying the circumstances.
For their part, the police reported that a companion died along with the mayor. “They were doing physical activity in the Nueva Ponce sector,” he said.
“The incident would have been perpetrated by several antisocials, who were traveling in a van that was later allegedly incinerated and subsequently located by our staff,” he stated in his X account.
In January, the Ecuadorian government declared that the country is suffering from an “internal armed conflict” and ratified it at the beginning of April, allowing the military to carry out joint patrols with the police to counter organized crime groups operating in the country. and that have increased the incidence of all types of crimes such as kidnappings, extortion and others.
Sánchez, 51 years old and a lawyer by profession, took office in Ponce Enríquez in May 2023, the year in which he was the target of two other attacks. The last one occurred in October, when armed men attacked his residence, but he and his family were unharmed.
The president of the Association of Municipalities of Ecuador, Patricio Maldonado, expressed his pain at the murder of Sánchez “in such a cruel way,” he said on the social network X, in which he published a photo with the victim.
Juan Lloret, prefect of the province of Azuay to which Ponce Enríquez belongs, lamented the death of the mayor on the same network and demanded that the authorities find those responsible for “this new crime” that is mourning Ecuador.
Ponce Enríquez, about 456 kilometers south of Quito, is known for its subsoil rich in minerals such as gold and copper, where the majority of its inhabitants work directly or indirectly in this activity. It is estimated that 65,000 ounces of gold are produced in the town each year, in small-scale and artisanal mining, according to information from the mayor's office.
A month ago, Brigitte García, a young mayor of a coastal city in the province of Manabí, was murdered along with a companion. In July 2023, Agustín Intriago, mayor of the important port city of Manta, died in an attack while touring a construction site, and in May of that same year, the mayor of the town of Durán, Luis Chonillo, was unharmed in an attack. in which three other people died.
These murders of authorities are added to the assassination that shocked Ecuador on August 9, 2023, when the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead while leaving a political event in the north of Quito, thus exacerbating the crisis of violence and crime that hits the Andean country. In 2023, 7,600 violent deaths were recorded in the country, a record.
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