Quito, Ecuador — Seven people were shot dead in Ecuador while leaving a pool hall in the latest in a series of tit-for-tat gang attacks near the violence-plagued port city of Guayaquil, police said Sunday.
The third shooting in a week in the town of Duran brings the number of people killed to 17 in the flare-up in violence between two notorious local gangs, the Latin Kings and Chone Killers gangs, police said.
The latest shooting took place Saturday night, when gunmen travelling in two cars opened fire on suspected members of the Chone Killers, Duran police chief Roberto Santamaria said.
Traces of blood from the shooting were still visible on the streets Sunday.
Santamaria blamed the attack on the rival Latin Kings gang, saying it appeared to be a revenge attack.
The series of shootings began on Tuesday, when gunmen wearing army-style uniforms took five people from their homes and shot them dead execution-style in an alley in Duran.
Police later blamed that attack on the Chone Killers.
A day later, suspected members of the Chone Killers traveling by car opened fire on a group of people, also killing five.
"There has been a succession of violent acts that began with the death of five members of a gang, they seek retaliation with five other acts (killings) and so on," Santamaria said.
The Latin Kings and Chone Killers have a strong presence in Duran, which is situated just across the Babahoyo River from Guayaquil, the nerve center of a drug war between the government and powerful criminal groups.
Santamaria described the Latin Kings and Chone Killers as having "military-style power" and accused them of drug trafficking, extortion and the recruitment of minors, among other crimes.
Duran is situated in Guayas province, one of six Ecuadoran provinces which is under a state of emergency due to gang violence.
The capital Quito is included in the emergency measures.
Violent crime in Ecuador, a country once seen as a beacon of stability in South America that has become a major drug trafficking hub, has skyrocketed in recent years.
The murder rate went from six in 2018 to 47 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.
The government says its crackdown on gangs who control the country's prisons is producing results, with murders falling to 4,959 between January and October this year, compared to 6,037 for the same period in 2023.
