Ecuadorian mayor shot dead in armed attack

The mayor of Portovelo in Ecuador's southern province of El Oro was killed Friday in an armed attack against the municipal authority, reported Xinhua, quoting the National Police.

The mayor, Jorge Maldonado, "was shot and killed while carrying out personal activities in Portovelo," and the attack was allegedly carried out by "two antisocials on a motorcycle," the police said on social media.

The police said they had located an abandoned motorcycle, which had similar characteristics to the one used in the incident.

The motorcycle "will be part of the investigation to clarify the motive and arrest those responsible," according to the police.

Maldonado was elected mayor of Portovelo, a mining town in the country, in 2023.

The Association of Ecuadorian Municipalities lamented the crime and called for security for local authorities in the South American country.

The crime occurred just two days after the murder of Mayor Jose Sanchez of the Canton municipality of Camilo Ponce Enriquez, located in the southern province of Azuay, in an armed attack.

In March, Brigitte Garcia, the mayor of San Vicente in Manabi, was killed in a similar situation.

The murder of public officials has become recurrent in the country amid the "internal armed conflict" declared by the government in January against organized crime, following an escalation of violence.