Mayor, adviser shot dead

Ecuador; Ecuador’s youngest mayor Brigitte Garcia and an adviser were shot dead in a car, police said, as the South American country is gripped by a wave of violence that authorities are blaming on drug trafficking.

The National Police said they were investigating the deaths of Garcia, the 27-year-old mayor of San Vicente, and Jairo Loor after their bodies were found in Manabi province. Both had gunshot wounds, police said in a statement. Garcia belonged to former President Rafael Correa’s Citizens Revolution Party. Correa and Luisa Gonzalez, the party’s presidential candidate in the recent elections, described Garcia’s death as murder on social media platform X. “I just found out they killed our fellow mayor of San Vicente, Brigitte Garcia,” Gonzalez said in a post. “I have no words, I’m in shock, no one is safe in Ecuador.”

Garcia is the latest political figure to be assassinated in the country, following the killing of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio last August. Villavicencio, an outspoken critic of corruption and organized crime, was killed while leaving a campaign event two weeks before the election.