Seventeen Lives Lost in Devastating Gun Attack on Ecuador Bar

In a tragic incident, 17 people were killed, including a 12-year-old boy, when gunmen stormed a bar in El Empalme, Ecuador, marking a grim escalation in the country's ongoing drug violence. The attack occurred late Sunday at La Clínica bar, where gunmen unleashed chaos, injuring 14 others in the process. According to police, assailants arrived in two pickup trucks, firing indiscriminately into the crowd using both pistols and rifles.

Among the deceased was a young boy who, despite fleeing over a kilometer, succumbed to his injuries. Media images from the scene depict a harrowing aftermath, with multiple bodies sprawled on the streets, covered by white sheets. Police Major Oscar Valencia indicated that over 40 ballistic pieces were collected for analysis, and witnesses reported the assailants yelled "active wolves," allegedly an allusion to a local gang involved in the fierce competition for drug trafficking routes.

This incident follows a similar attack just a week prior in Playas, where nine individuals were killed in a bar, as part of what authorities labeled as a violent struggle amongst drug traffickers. President Daniel Noboa has also declared a war on organized crime, yet Ecuador's homicide rate remains alarmingly high, reaching 38 per 100,000 in a grim 2024 statistic. In the first five months alone of the current year, official data records at least 4,051 homicides, revealing the depth of the crisis in a nation that is a major transit point for global cocaine trafficking.