Guayas, R, celebrated the 73th anniversary of his statement as a parish when, around nine o’clock on Sunday night, hitmen broke into a bar and opened fire. 16 people died on the spot and other fourteen were injured. The attackers, who arrived in two trucks, also fired during the flight against the people on the street. Three teenagers walked through the place were reached by the bullets; One of them, just 12 years old, died in the place.
The massacre has left a deep mark on this rural commune of farmers, of just over 18,000 inhabitants. When the shots ceased, the neighbors left their homes to help the survivors shouted asking for help.
The Guayas Health Center only attends during daytime and does not have ambulance, so it was neighbors who improvised the rescue. They went up to the injured in trucks, motorcycles and private cars and transferred them to the hospitals of neighboring cities.
Police collected about 40 caps hours later, but with the light of dawn they were still more watered by the asphalt. There were also shoes, caps, wallets.
Fear settled in the town. In the only school in the area, the teachers arrived early, but no child attended. The tragedy hit entire homes that lost up to four members on the night of terror. “It was horrible. In the day we were partying and suddenly this happened,” says a neighbor, who prefers not to give his name. He assures that the victims were people from the neighborhood, workers, neighbors and that none, he says, had links with criminal gangs.
The authorities still do not confirm the mobile of the attack, but police sources point out that the bar could have been the target of a dispute between organized crime groups. In recent years, of the country. Ecuador, who for decades was seen as a corner of peace in the Andean region, dragged by a war between mafias that disputes routes and territories for drug trafficking.
The year 2025 has marked a new record of violence. In the first six months, 5,060 violent deaths were recorded, 41% more than in the same 2024 period. Most of these crimes are concentrated on the coast, where armed groups have displaced the State.
The attack in Guayas joins a series of massacres. Just a week ago, another occurred on beaches, a city located in the same province, where they riddled eleven young people who played billiards in a center in the center.
According to him, violence has ceased to be confined to prisons, where these facts were previously registered, and has taken the streets. During the first mandate of Daniel Noboa (November 2023 to April 2025), 330 multiple murders have been counted – seventh with three or more dead. In 82% of cases, murdered people had no criminal record.
More than 1,200 people have died in these massacres, which begin to take rural communities such as Guayas, small villages, without sufficient police and without basic services.
