An Ecuadoran judge was killed Thursday while walking his children to school, and a professional soccer player was shot and wounded in the latest attacks attributed to criminal gang activity in the South American country.
Police said a gunman on a motorbike opened fire on judge Marcos Mendoza in the coastal town of Montecristi in Ecuador’s Manabi province, plagued by drug cartels.
Provincial police chief Colonel Giovanni Naranjo told reporters the Los Lobos gang — designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States — was suspected of the attack.
At least 15 judges or prosecutors have been killed in Ecuador since 2022, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Ecuadoran Judges’ Association said Mendoza’s “shocking” murder shined a light on the “vulnerability” of the country’s judges, writing on social media: “Without judicial security, no justice is possible.”
They “face pressure, threats, and risks every day for carrying out their duties with independence and courage,” it added.
Also Thursday, Ecuadoran soccer player Bryan “Cuco” Angulo, who has played for several Latin American clubs and for his country, was shot in the foot when attending a training session.
Police said two assailants were arrested, while Angulo’s club, Liga de Portoviejo, said in a social media post that several of its players “have received threats” ahead of a match against rivals Buhos ULRV on Friday.
Playing football in Ecuador can be deadly, with match-fixing mafias part of a global criminal empire that earns gangs some $1.7 trillion per year, according to a recent UN estimate.
Experts say gangs target second-division teams in Ecuador, where players are more susceptible due to their comparatively lower salaries.
Last year, police arrested a woman at one of Angulo’s homes and found a surveillance system there that had allegedly been used by criminal gangs.
“We do not rule out that the attack is related,” Manabi police chief Giovanni Naranjo said.
Ecuador, once considered one of Latin America’s safest nations, has seen a dramatic surge in violence in recent years.
Strategically located between Colombia and Peru, two of the world’s largest cocaine producers, it has become a major transit hub for narcotics.
President Daniel Noboa has deployed troops to combat the violence — to little effect.
In the first half of this year, homicides in Ecuador increased by 47 percent compared to the same period in 2024, according to the national Observatory of Organized Crime.
Earlier this week, authorities in Ecuador reported two attacks that left 14 people dead and 17 wounded, with some of the victims showing signs of torture.
Also this week, two explosions rocked different parts of Ecuador, less than 24 hours after a vehicle exploded in a port city in the South American country and left one person dead.
Interior Minister John Reimberg accused the Los Lobos gang and dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a now-defunct Colombian guerrilla movement with ties to the gang, of being behind the blasts.
Vicente Gaibor Del Pino / REUTERS
Criminal gang violence continues unabated following the recapture in June of the country’s biggest drug lord, Adolfo Macías after his escape from a maximum-security prison in 2024. In July, the Ecuadoran government extradited Macias to the United States, where he faces multiple drug trafficking and firearms charges.
