A mayor of Ecuador is shot dead in the middle of the state of emergency

The Ecuadorian Police announced this Sunday that Brigitte García, mayor of the coastal city of San Vicente, in the province of Manabí, was murdered, at a time when a state of emergency decreed by the Government is in force to stop the spiral of violence that occurred at the beginning of the year.

“This morning in the San Vicente sector, Manabí, 2 people were identified inside a vehicle without vital signs, with injuries from a firearm impact, which correspond to Jairo L. and Brigitte G.. (mayor of the San Vicente canton)”, the Police reported through their X network account.

He added that specialized units of the institution are currently carrying out investigations to “establish the nature and motive of the incident.”

According to digital media information, The other person found dead corresponds to Jairo Loor, Director of Communication of the Municipality of San Vicente.

Brigitte García, 27 years old, She was considered the youngest mayor in the country and was a member of the Citizen Revolution movement, led by former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

“I’m devastated. I can’t believe it,” Correa himself wrote on his X account upon hearing the news and stressed: “My God!! Brigitte was the youngest mayor in the country.”

“Enough!” exclaimed the former president who resides in Belgium and noted: “If it is so hard for you, I imagine how your families must be… I have no words.”

García’s murder occurred less than two months after the shooting of Diana Carnero, councilor of the coastal municipality of Naranjal, in the province of Guayas, occurred on February 7, and also in the middle of the state of emergency.

Carnero, 29, was shot dead by hitmen in the middle of a public street in Naranjal, a municipality near the port city of Guayaquil.

The murder of Carnero, who was also a Correísta militant, joined a long list of authorities who have been victims of hitmen in recent months in Ecuador, including prosecutors, judges and politicians such as the mayor of Manta, Agustín Intriago, and the politician and former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

He President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency at the beginning of January, when he had not even been in power for two months. and decreed a situation of internal armed conflict to try to stop the spiral of violence in prisons and on the streets nationwide, attributed to organized crime groups.

By declaring the “internal armed conflict,” the Government identified at least 22 transnational organized crime groups and classified them “as terrorist organizations” and “belligerent non-state actors.”

The spiral of violence was unleashed just after President Noboa announced his decision to launch his ‘Phoenix Plan’, with the aim of regaining control of the prisons, many of them dominated by criminal groups, whose rivalries have left more than 450 prisoners murdered since 2020 in a series of prison massacres.

This violence also moved to the streets until turning Ecuador is one of the most violent countries, with 45 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.

García’s crime also occurred at a time when the country is engaged in a voting process for a popular consultation and referendum that will take place on April 21.