The bridge explosions happen simply hours after a automobile bomb went off outdoors a shopping center in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest metropolis.
Printed On 16 Oct 2025
Explosions have rocked totally different components of Ecuador, with officers accusing an area prison gang and Colombian ex-FARC dissidents of focusing on two bridges in retaliation for a significant navy operation in opposition to unlawful miners.
It’s the newest wave of violence to have engulfed the South American nation lately. The federal government of President Daniel Noboa has been struggling to beat again prison teams, who’ve shifted their drug smuggling from extra militarised international locations like Colombia to traditionally peaceable Ecuador.
Advisable Tales
listing of three gadgetsfinish of listing
Explosives had been positioned on bridges “to dam site visitors”, Transport Minister Roberto Luque wrote on X on Wednesday, describing the acts as “terrorism”. No casualties have been reported, although roads resulting in the affected areas stay closed.
Inside Minister John Reimberg accused Ecuadorian gang Los Lobos, which is designated as a “international terrorist organisation” by america, and former rebels of the now-defunct motion Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, with ties to the gang, of being behind the blasts.
Reimberg stated the assaults got here after safety operations destroyed “unlawful mining operations” in northern Ecuador and detained ex-FARC members.
No group instantly claimed accountability for the blasts, and no arrests have been made.
The US State Division’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs condemned the assaults in a put up on X, calling them “brazen terrorist assaults in opposition to the Ecuadorian folks”.
“We stay dedicated to the battle to eradicate organized crime and stand able to help Ecuador in holding these accountable to account,” it wrote in a press release.
The Related Press information company obtained a police report that confirmed the bridge construction within the metropolis of Naranjal, about 290km (180 miles) southwest of the capital, Quito, sustained injury “from the suspected detonation”.
Marcela Aguinaga, prefect of the Guayas province, the place Naranjal is situated, condemned the “prison act” on X.
The opposite explosion occurred on a bridge connecting the provinces of Azuay and El Oro in southern Ecuador. The emergency providers reported on X that the route was closed resulting from a “doable collapse” of the construction. Photographs launched by native media confirmed rubble, twisted steel from the bridge, and shattered windscreens on at the very least two buses.
The bridge explosions occurred simply hours after a car bomb went off outdoors a shopping center in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest metropolis, killing one individual and injuring many. A second automobile containing explosives was discovered close by however was deactivated.
The Legal professional Normal’s Workplace stated it had launched an investigation into the blasts, whereas the federal government supplied a reward for any info resulting in the identification and seize of these accountable.
Noboa, talking at a public occasion in Guayaquil on Wednesday, stated prison teams had been trying to destabilise the federal government and that the nation can not “again down earlier than individuals who need to terrorise Ecuadorian households”.
In March, a automobile exploded outdoors Ecuador’s largest and most harmful jail on the outskirts of Guayaquil, killing a jail guard.
In 2023, Ecuador noticed a number of extra automobile bomb assaults as a part of a wave of prison violence that has plagued the Andean nation since early 2021.
