At least 5 people dead in Ecuador blast

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - At least five people were killed and 16 others injured after a bomb exploded in the Cristo del Consuelo neighborhood in the coastal city of Guayaquil in southwestern Ecuador, authorities said Sunday.

Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo blamed "organized crime" involved in illicit drug trafficking.

“Organized-crime mercenaries, who have long narcotized the economy, are now attacking with explosives,” Carrillo said at a press conference. “It is a declaration of war on the state,” he added.

The country's National Risk and Emergency Service confirmed that eight homes and two vehicles were also destroyed by the explosion. ​​Authorities said the number of victims could rise in the coming hours.

Unknown suspects reportedly threw a bomb at the site as part of a confrontation between criminal gangs fighting for control of drug dealing in the city.

According to a recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Ecuador is the country with the third highest number of drug seizures in the world after the US and Colombia. The South American nation accounted for 6.5% of the cocaine seized worldwide in 2020.

Organized crime groups are fighting for control of territories, authorities report. Prisons have also suffered from an increase in drug-related crime. Some 400 inmates have died in Ecuador's prisons in recent months due to rampant violence between criminal gangs linked to drug trafficking, while police are fighting rising crime.