Three people lynched and burnt in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas accused of kidnapping
A mob killed and burnt three people in Santa María de Toachi, accusing them of kidnapping. The National Police confirmed the facts and is investigating their identities.
Lynching in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas leaves three burnt bodies
Three people were lynched and burnt on Monday by a mob in the community of Santa María de Toachi, a rural area of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, according to confirmation by the National Police. The incident was recorded in videos circulated on social media, which show the charred bodies still in flames on the roadside.
According to vistazo.com, the victims were caught by their pursuers, assaulted and burnt in the same place alongside the vehicle they were travelling in. The mob identified them as suspected perpetrators of a kidnapping that occurred in the Patricia Pilar sector.
Victims unidentified; vehicle destroyed
The head of the National Police in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Edison Padilla, declared to local media that among the victims there are possibly two men and one woman, although none have been able to be identified so far. The flames also prevented obtaining data from the incinerated vehicle to determine who it belonged to.
"They may have possibly been the perpetrators of a kidnapping in the Patricia Pilar sector. The investigation is underway and we hope that in the coming hours it will yield positive results," said Padilla.
Context of violence in Ecuador
The summary execution occurs within the framework of the "internal armed conflict" declared by president Daniel Noboa at the beginning of the year, with the aim of combatting organised crime gangs primarily dedicated to drug trafficking, categorised as terrorist groups and non-state armed actors.
The government has implemented measures such as a state of exception and the militarisation of prisons to contain the wave of violence that has positioned Ecuador among the most violent countries in Latin America. According to data from the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organised Crime (OECO), the homicide rate reached 47 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.
Although the authorities assure that homicides have declined in recent months, killings continue: at least four mayors were murdered in 2024, and denunciations of kidnappings and extortions persist.
Source: Google News DO — Santo Domingo