2023-07-23 21:45:00
The mayor of the coastal city of Manta, Agustín Intriago, assassinated this Sunday
The mayor of the Ecuadorian city of Manta, Agustín Intriago, was shot to death on Sunday while visiting a crowded neighborhood in that port city, officials confirmed.
Intriago, a 38-year-old lawyer and political leader, belonged to the local movement called Better City. He was recently reappointed to his post, which he took over in May of this year.
On his Twitter account, the Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata, expressed his solidarity with family and friends of the mayor of the third largest city in Ecuador “before his sensitive death due to an armed attack.”
Zapata also reported that there is a collateral victim and four injured, two of whom would be implicated in the incident, for which reason they are receiving medical attention under police surveillance.
“Our total solidarity with the family and friends of the mayor of Manta, Agustín Intriago, in the face of his sensitive death due to an armed attack,” the official said on his Twitter account.
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 wounded have been reported, two of them implicated in the incident, who are in police custody in a nursing home and reiterated that the Police “will not rest until they find those responsible.”
The Andean country is experiencing a wave of violence (Photo: Twitter/@LassoGuillermo)
President Guillermo Lasso regretted the event in his first reaction on Twitter and said that he instructed the highest police authority to activate the necessary contingent so that those responsible are located and brought to justice, and the police reported that specialized units were deployed in the place.
The victim’s sister, Ana Intriago, wrote on her Twitter account that “this crime cannot go unpunished… let’s not let them win.”
“My brother has died, pray for the rest of his soul, this crime cannot go unpunished please, let’s not let these wicked win,” Ana wrote on Twitter.
He added: “Darkness, evil has won this time, let’s not let them continue to win, no impunity, punish the wicked.”
The mayor of Quito, Pabel Muñoz, lamented the death of Intriago and demanded that the national authorities act. “The country cannot continue to bleed to death, security must be its priority,” he tweeted on his official account.
The city of Manta is located 260 kilometers southwest of the capital, in the province of Manabí, whose coasts are designated as coveted routes for drug traffickers to carry large drug shipments to destinations in other parts of America and Europe, mainly.
Ecuador is facing the most serious crisis of insecurity and violence in its history, which broke out in 2021 in the country’s main prisons and which authorities have attributed to the dispute between organized crime groups that operate inside and outside prison.
In an attempt to contain the violence, the government has signed several state of emergency decrees, the latest in force in the coastal provinces, including Manabí, where armed attacks, kidnappings, assassinations, robberies and extortions are constantly reported.
(With information from EFE and AP)
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