QUITO: Gunmen dressed in military-style uniforms killed seven people Monday in western Ecuador, police said, as the country continues to grapple with drug violence.
Attacks by individuals dressed as soldiers are frequent in the South American nation, where drug trafficking gangs with connections to international cartels are fighting over turf.
Monday’s massacre occurred at a ranch in Manabi, which has been under a state of emergency — along with eight other provinces — since January.
President Daniel Noboa has deployed the military in anti-drug campaigns but homicides have only increased, ticking up to a record 9,216 violent deaths last year.
Monday’s attack occurred in the early morning and “left seven people dead from gunshot wounds,” police said.
Before killing them, the attackers took the victims to a courtyard, interrogated them, and then opened fire with rifles and handguns.
Among the dead was a 16-year-old boy.
Ecuador has gone from being one of South America’s safest countries to a major cocaine trafficking hub in the space of a few years, plagued by gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels.
Its strategic location on the Pacific Ocean has made it a gateway for Colombian and Peruvian cocaine destined for the United States and Europe.
Gunmen in military-style uniforms kill seven in Ecuador
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Gunmen in military-style uniforms kill seven in Ecuador
- Monday’s massacre occurred at a ranch in Manabi, which has been under a state of emergency along with eight other provinces since January
‘Unofficial’ talks on plastic pollution treaty to begin in Japan
- “Plastic pollution is a planetary problem that affects everyone: every country, every community and every individual,” Cordano warned after being elected
TOKYO: Delegates from around 20 countries will hold three days of “informal” talks in Japan from Sunday aimed at salvaging efforts toward a landmark global treaty on plastic pollution.
Supposedly final talks in South Korea in 2024 toward an agreement failed, and a renewed effort in Geneva last August likewise collapsed in overtime.
A Japanese Environment Ministry official said that the “informal” closed-door meeting among “working-level officials” through Tuesday was not expected to result in any official announcement.
If we don’t take concerted action, it will get much worse in the coming decades. A treaty is urgently needed.
Julio Cordano, Chile’s chief climate negotiator
“Japan is in a position of pushing for progress on the issue, and so is hosting the meeting,” the official told AFP without wishing to be named.
She added that “little progress” has been made since August, other than the election in early February of Chile’s chief climate negotiator Julio Cordano as chairman.
“Plastic pollution is a planetary problem that affects everyone: every country, every community and every individual,” Cordano warned after being elected.
“If we don’t take concerted action, it will get much worse in the coming decades. A treaty is urgently needed,” he said.
More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, with half for single-use items.
A large bloc of states wants bold action such as curbing plastic production, while a smaller clutch of oil-producing states wants to focus more narrowly on waste management.
Countries expected to be present in Tokyo include big oil producers like Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States as well as islands states Antigua and Barbuda and Palau, plus China, India and the European Union.
The UN’s environment chief told AFP in an interview in October that a global treaty remains “totally doable.”
“No one has walked away and said, ‘this is just too hopeless, we’re giving up’,” United Nations Environment Programme executive director Inger Andersen said.
