An Ecuadorean mayor was shot and killed along with a bystander, while touring his city.
On Sunday in Manta, a lone shooter shot Agustin Intriago multiple times. A local female football player named Ariana Estefana Chancay also died in the incident.
Rosita Saldarriagas, Intriago’s wife, said the murder had “torn out” both her heart and the hearts of her children.
Police said that Mr. Intriago had reported receiving threats, though they have not yet confirmed a motive.
On Twitter, Ms. Saldarriagas stated that “all Agustín did was to work for Manta, with devotion and total determination”. “He wanted our children and all the children of Manta to live in a better city and that’s why he gave all,” she continued.
Several shots were fired at the mayor by a gunman who arrived in a stolen pick-up truck, according to officials. He was pronounced dead in hospital.
Police commander Edwin Noguera told reporters that the truck’s driver was injured during the chase and taken into custody. But the shooter managed to flee.
With 80% of the vote, Mr. Intriago was re-elected in February to a second four-year term. he was inspecting a construction site where a new sewer was being built,when he was killed.
Ms. Chancay, a 29-year-old football player for the local club Las Dragonas, had just walked up to him when the shooter started firing.
According to local media, Ms. Chancay had planned to ask the mayor for help with her amateur team.
The murder has shocked Ecuador, where assaults on elected officials had until recently been rare.
A politician in Puerto Lopez who was running for mayor in February was assassinated just hours before voting began.
A different coastal town’s mayoral candidate had also been shot and killed a few weeks earlier in Salinas.
Security experts assert that local Ecuadorean gangs have been infiltrated by transnational crime groups from Colombia and Mexico who brought their violent methods with them.
