The region of the small nation where a man was lynched and burned alive by a gang of rioting locals is locked in a vicious spiralling gang war that has claimed hundreds of lives.
The unnamed man, who local reports have identified as British, was arrested in the Amazonian Sucumbios province of Ecuador on suspicion of shooting dead a local named Rodrigo Chavez. But before he had the chance to stand trial, news of Mr Chavez’s death spread within the community, and the alleged killer was pulled from the station by a furious group of more than 200 people. He was burned alive after the group overwhelmed police at the station in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, a popular area tourists are warned against visiting due to its violent reputation.
The stunning rainforest region, which borders Colombia, is infamous for being a haven for drug cartels, who have brutally flexed their influence over the last year, leaving a trail of mutilated bodies in their wake.
Sucumbios authorities declared a state of emergency in the province last year following 159 killings, a surge of nearly 70 percent on the year previous.
Police believe the violence is fuelled by struggles for territory between local armed groups, some of which are known for kidnapping and ransoming tourists. Brits have previously been targets of local gangs over the last more than a decade, with Kathryn Cox, 23, and Australian Fiona Wilde, 32, kidnapped in Cuyabeno in 2012.
The two were rescued by a massive taskforce of more than 100 soldiers, police and park rangers after a farmer heard their screams during a robbery.
Violence flared in Ecuador generally last year following the breakout of notorious gangster Adolfo Macías Villamar, known locally as “Fito”, from the La Regional prison in the coastal city of Guayaquil.
His escape and resulting upheaval in several prisons has led to a surge in violence in Guayaquil and neighbouring Esmeraldas that led Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa to declare a state of emergency and nationwide curfew that have since been renewed into 2025.
But violence has only surged since then, with the proclimaion sparking immediate gangland backlash. A police officer aiding the gang crackdown was kidnapped on duty last year and forced to read a videotaped statement to the President warning him: “You declared war, you will get war”.
The statement added: “You declared a state of emergency. We declare police, civilians and soldiers to be the spoils of war.”
Brits have been warned against visiting the nation, which is sandwiched between two of the largest cocaine producing countries in the world – Colombia and Peru – advising against “all but essential travel”.
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