Six people, including a two-year-old girl, were killed when gunmen opened fire on a beachside boardwalk in Puerto Lopez, a beach resort in southwestern Ecuador, on Sunday, December 28, 2025. Three others were injured in the attack.
The assault began at 9 a.m. local time when men arrived in a van and on two motorcycles before opening fire in the coastal town located in Manabí province. The attackers fled the scene before police arrived.
Colonel William Acurio, the regional police commander, spoke to media about the incident. “The attack killed six and left three others injured,” he said.
Police are still searching for the suspects, and no arrests have been announced. “An internal dispute between criminal groups is suspected as the motive behind the shooting,” Acurio added.
The shooting marked the third deadly attack in the city over the weekend. A total of nine people were killed in Puerto Lopez during that period.
Puerto Lopez is known as a whale-watching destination that attracts both domestic and foreign tourists. The attack occurred in a popular public area along the town’s boardwalk, transforming a typically peaceful setting into a crime scene.
The bloodshed comes amid a broader deterioration in security across Ecuador, where violence tied to drug trafficking routes and gang rivalries has surged in recent years. Ecuador is located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two top exporters of cocaine, and has seen escalating violence by gangs linked to Mexican and Colombian cartels.
President Daniel Noboa declared an internal armed conflict with gangs in an effort to combat organized crime. Despite these hardline policies, the violence has not stemmed to date.
Killings and clashes in neighborhoods and public spaces are commonplace throughout the country. Ecuador is on track to end the year with a record murder rate of 52 homicides per 100,000 residents, according to the Geneva-based Organised Crime Observatory.
The province of Manabí has been under a state of emergency since August 2025. Following the Puerto Lopez shooting, the Special Operations Group was deployed to conduct searches in the area as authorities sought to locate the perpetrators.
The death of the two-year-old girl in Puerto Lopez represents part of a harrowing trend affecting Ecuador’s youngest residents. Child homicides in the country have surged over 640 percent as criminal organizations increasingly carry out attacks in public spaces.
The violence has devastated communities across Ecuador, with attacks occurring in various settings throughout the year. Multiple shootings at pool halls, armed attacks in major cities, and weekend violence in coastal towns have become regular occurrences as rival criminal factions battle for control of drug trafficking routes.
The government has deployed military forces to support police operations and declared multiple states of emergency in an effort to restore order. Despite these measures, violent attacks continue to affect both urban centers and tourist areas throughout the country.
For residents of Puerto Lopez and other affected communities, the surge in violence has transformed daily life. The once-thriving tourism industry in coastal areas has suffered as visitors reconsider travel to regions where public spaces have become targets for gang-related violence.
The strategic location of Manabí province makes it particularly valuable to drug trafficking organizations seeking to move cocaine shipments toward international markets. This geographic positioning has turned peaceful fishing villages and tourist destinations into contested territory for criminal groups.
As the country approaches the end of 2025, the weekend violence in Puerto Lopez underscores the ongoing security crisis facing Ecuador. The attack on the beachside boardwalk, occurring in broad daylight at a popular tourist destination, illustrates how extensively organized crime has penetrated civilian spaces throughout the nation.