In recent years, Ecuador has drifted into the grip of drug cartel violence and assassinations.
of Ecuador the youngest mayor Brigitte García27, and his communications manager Jairo Loor were found shot in their rental car early on Sunday, the news agencies AFP and Reuters report.
According to the police investigation, the shots were fired from inside the car. The police were still investigating the car's movements with the help of its GPS equipment.
García, a leftist, led the city of San Vicente, a town of about 10,000 inhabitants, in the province of Manabí, at the mouth of the Chone River.
Ecuador has drifted into the grip of violence by drug cartels in recent years. Last August, a presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinatedand seven accused of the act was killed in prison in October.
During the August elections, the pre-favorite was also murdered, among other things, of the left party local manager in the province of Esmeraldas, parliamentary candidate from the same province and the coastal city of Manta mayor.
The centrist who won the presidential election Daniel Noboa36, declared a state of emergency in January to crack down on organized crime and declared his government at war on gangs.
Ecuador was long known as one of the most peaceful and rapidly prosperous corners of Latin America, but it has become the nerve center of the international drug trade.
Read more: This is how cocaine comes to Europe – “Ecuador will not win the war alone”
Read more: Ecuador was a place of peace: Now it votes in the shadow of assassinations and bodies hanging from bridges
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