Shock in Ecuador over the murder of the young mayor of Manta

The mayor of the coastal city of Manta in Ecuador, Agustín Intriagowas assassinated this Sunday (07.23.2023) in an armed attack that also claimed the life of a woman and left two injured, authorities reported.

“Unfortunate news for the country: @agustinintriago, mayor of Manta, has died the victim of an attack,” President Guillermo Lasso wrote on Twitter.

Lasso also mourned the death of another person who accompanied the mayor at the event and which according to local media was a young athlete who had come to greet him.

“Our total solidarity with the family and friends of the mayor of MantaAgustín Intriago, before his sensitive death due to an armed attack”, said the Minister of the Interior of Ecuador, Juan Zapata, on his Twitter account.

Two involved in police custody

And he added that the National Police “is fully deployed to locate and capture those responsible for this reprehensible act.”

He added that a collateral victim and four injured are reported.two of them implicated in the event, who are in police custody in a health home and reiterated that the Police “will not rest until they find those responsible.”

Police colonel Alex Salgado specified that “the mayor’s security fired some shots, that is, they repelled the attack” and wounded a man who is hospitalized and in custody.

He had been re-elected in February

Intriago, 37 years old and father of two children, was touring a public work accompanied by supporters when he was shot. The mayor had been re-elected for a new term in the elections last February.

“The homeland is experiencing moments of horror and terror,” Leonardo Orlado, prefect of the southwestern province of Manabí, to which Manta belongs, said on Twitter.

The coastal Manabí is the second province with the most murders in Ecuador behind Guayas, according to the Dinased police unit, in charge of investigating violent deaths and disappearances. Between January and June, 370 homicides were registered in that province.

Insecurity is one of the biggest concerns of Ecuadorians for several months, given the increase in violent acts, many of which the authorities relate to criminal gangs linked to drug trafficking.

This same Sunday, at least five inmates died and eleven others were injured in clashes between inmates in a prison in the coastal province of Guayas (southwest), confirmed the National Comprehensive Care Service for Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI).