Ecuadorian councillor, 29, executed in broad daylight while filming video about roads
9 February 2024, 09:48 | Updated: 9 February 2024, 09:54
An Ecuadorian politician was executed in broad daylight in front of a crowd while filming a video about the bad state of the roads in her town.
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Diana Carnero, 29, had just chaired a meeting in the town of Naranjal in Guayas after leaving a council meeting.
Two men rode up to her on a motorbike and shot her in the head before fleeing. No arrests have been made.
A local posted about her death: "Diana was 29 years old. This is a nightmare. A hug to her family and all of Naranjal. When you have children of that age, you understand what their parents must be suffering. They cut short the life of a promise for Naranjal and the Homeland. What a disgrace!”
Blanca Lopez, Guayaquil's deputy mayor, posted: "This must end, wanting better days for our cantons, provinces and country cannot mean putting our lives at risk." These words come after the recent spike in violence in the area, highlighted by the murder of Carnero.
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Last month Ecuador’s president Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency and ordered the army to ‘neutralise’ drug gangs as gunfire erupted on the streets.
Mobsters had warned anyone found outside after 11pm ‘will be executed’.
Gang members stored the state-owned TC Television in the city of Guayaquil. Harrowing video shows armed men holding TV workers hostage - pointing shotguns at their heads while workers pleaded “don’t shoot.”
Masked men could be seen aiming guns at news staff while terrified workers shouted: "Don't shoot!"
After about 15 minutes the transmission was cut.
The unprecedented assault on the TV station in Guayaquil, a port city in Ecuador, came hours after a series of other attacks and police officer abductions.
It also followed the apparent escapes from prison of two of the leaders of the country's most powerful gangs.
President Daniel Noboa, who came into power in November with a promise to bring peace to the South American country, issued a decree saying the violence-plagued country had entered an "internal armed conflict", in what some analysts see as a watershed moment for Ecuador.
Located on South America's Pacific coast between Peru and Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producers, Ecuador has become a key transit point for the drug in recent years.
Much of the violence suffered by the country comes as drug gangs fight each other and the government for control of ports and smuggling routes.
