QUITO, July 23 (Reuters) – The mayor of the Ecuadorian Pacific port city of Manta, Agustin Intriago, was shot dead on Sunday, authorities said, in a brazen attack that stunned the political establishment.
Police said the 38-year-old Intriago, who was re-elected as mayor of Manta in February, had been inspecting public works in the city at the time of the attack.
In a video shared on social media, local police commander Alex Salgado told reporters Intriago had been hit by an undetermined number of bullets and a woman had also died in the incident, describing her as a “collateral victim.”
The municipal government of Manta said on its Twitter account that Intriago had been shot dead.
Police said on Twitter that officers had secured a truck with a grenade inside it and a gun nearby which investigators believe may have been used in the attack.
Interior Minister Juan Zapata said four other people were wounded. Two of them are suspects in the killing, he said.
It was not immediately clear why the mayor had been attacked, though Ecuador has faced an increase in violent crime that the government says is driven by power struggles between criminal gangs over the drug trafficking trade.
Manta, a city of well over 200,000 people, has been prey to such gangs, while widespread common crime fed by economic and social problems is adding to the country’s security woes.
President Guillermo Lasso expressed his sorrow over Intriago’s “assassination” in a statement on Twitter and said he had ordered authorities to bring the killers to justice.
Former President Rafael Correa expressed his shock, saying on Twitter: “I can’t believe this has happened.”
In May, gunmen targeted the mayor of the city of Duran. He emerged unscathed from the attack but a policeman was killed and several other people were wounded, media reported.
Intriago belonged to a local political party in Manta.
Earlier, authorities said five people were killed at the weekend and 11 more injured in the latest outbreak of gang-fueled violence roiling Ecuador’s prisons.
Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; editing by Diane Craft, Sonali Paul and Chris Reese
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