QUITO (Reuters) – Twenty two people were killed in gun battles in Ecuador’s largest city Guayaquil on Thursday, in what police said was a potential dispute between factions of the Los Tiguerones criminal gang fighting for control of parts of one neighborhood.
The government of President Daniel Noboa, who is running for reelection in an April run-off, has intensified security operations over the past several weeks in the country’ most violent areas as part of a war on drug gangs declared by Noboa.
Some of those killed had prior convictions for robbery, drug trafficking and weapons possession, the National Police said in a statement late on Thursday.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Edited by Tomasz Janowski)
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