A judge was shot dead on Thursday in Ecuador while walking his children to school in a coastal province plagued by drug cartels, police said.
A gunman travelling by motorbike opened fire on Marcos Mendoza as he was accompanying his children in the town of Montecristi, the provincial police chief Colonel Giovanni Naranjo told reporters.
At least 15 judges or prosecutors have been killed in Ecuador since 2022, according to Human Rights Watch.
Naranjo said the Los Lobos gang — one of two along with rivals Los Choneros that have been designated foreign terrorist organizations by the United States — was suspected of the attack.
The police chief added that Mendoza did not have bodyguards because he never requested police protection.
In June, Mendoza was suspended from his duties for a month after attempting to communicate with Interior Minister John Reimberg shortly after raids on properties linked to Ecuador’s biggest drug lord, Adolfo Macias, in Manabi province.
It was not clear whether his call to the minister was related to the raids.
Mendoza had not been involved in the investigation into Los Choneros leader Macias, alias “Fito.”
Macias was captured in June in the port of Manta and extradited to the United States on drugs and weapons charges.
The Ecuadoran Judges’ Association said Mendoza’s “shocking” murder shone a light on the “vulnerability” of the country’s judges.
They “face pressure, threats, and risks every day for carrying out their duties with independence and courage,” it added.
Ecuador, once considered one of Latin America’s safest nations, has seen a dramatic surge in violence in recent years.
Strategically located between Colombia and Peru, two of the world’s largest cocaine producers, it has become a major transit hub for narcotics.
President Daniel Noboa has deployed troops to combat the violence — to little effect.
The number of murders recorded nationwide increased 47 percent in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2024, according to the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organized Crime.
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