The mayor of the coastal city of Manta in Ecuador, Agustín Intriago, and a woman were shot dead this Sunday when they were touring a construction site, authorities reported.
“Unfortunate news for the country: @agustinintriago, mayor of Manta, has died the victim of an attack,” President Guillermo Lasso wrote on Twitter.
Lasso also mourned the death of another person who accompanied the mayor at the event.
According to the Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata, the official was the victim of an “armed attack.”
Intriago, 37, was touring a public work accompanied by supporters when he was shot. The mayor had been re-elected for a new term in the elections last February.
“The homeland is experiencing moments of horror and terror,” Leonardo Orlado, prefect of the province of Manabí, to which Manta belongs, said on Twitter.
Manabí is the second province with the most murders in Ecuador behind Guayas, according to the Dinased police unit, in charge of investigating violent deaths and disappearances.
Between January and June, 370 homicides were registered in that province.
In May, a prosecutor and her assistant were also murdered in Manta.
A candidate for assembly for the elections on August 20 was also shot dead a week ago in the province of Esmeraldas after leaving a political meeting.
Ecuador closed 2022 with a rate of 25.75 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Dinased police unit, in charge of investigating violent deaths and disappearances.
That rate until June of this year was 18 per 100,000 inhabitants.