Explosions have rocked different parts of Ecuador, with officials accusing a local criminal gang and Colombian ex-FARC dissidents of targeting two bridges in retaliation for a major military operation against illegal miners.
It is the latest wave of violence to have engulfed the South American nation in recent years. The government of President Daniel Noboa has been struggling to beat back criminal groups, who have shifted their drug smuggling from more militarised countries like Colombia to historically peaceful Ecuador.
Explosives were placed on bridges “to block traffic”, Transport Minister Roberto Luque wrote on X on Wednesday, describing the acts as “terrorism”. No casualties have been reported, though roads leading to the affected areas remain closed.
Interior Minister John Reimberg accused Ecuadorian gang Los Lobos, which is designated as a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States, and former rebels of the now-defunct movement Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, with ties to the gang, of being behind the blasts.
Reimberg said the attacks came after security operations destroyed “illegal mining operations” in northern Ecuador and detained ex-FARC members.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts, and no arrests have been made.
The US State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs condemned the attacks in a post on X, calling them “brazen terrorist attacks against the Ecuadorian people”.
“We remain committed to the fight to eradicate organized crime and stand ready to support Ecuador in holding those responsible to account,” it wrote in a statement.
The Associated Press news agency obtained a police report that confirmed the bridge structure in the city of Naranjal, about 290km (180 miles) southwest of the capital, Quito, sustained damage “from the suspected detonation”.
Marcela Aguinaga, prefect of the Guayas province, where Naranjal is located, condemned the “criminal act” on X.
The other explosion occurred on a bridge connecting the provinces of Azuay and El Oro in southern Ecuador. The emergency services reported on X that the route was closed due to a “possible collapse” of the structure. Images released by local media showed rubble, twisted metal from the bridge, and shattered windscreens on at least two buses.
The bridge explosions occurred just hours after a car bomb went off outside a shopping mall in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, killing one person and injuring many. A second vehicle containing explosives was found nearby but was deactivated.
The Attorney General’s Office said it had launched an investigation into the blasts, while the government offered a reward for any information leading to the identification and capture of those responsible.
Noboa, speaking at a public event in Guayaquil on Wednesday, said criminal groups were attempting to destabilise the government and that the country cannot “back down before people who want to terrorise Ecuadorian families”.
In March, a vehicle exploded outside Ecuador’s largest and most dangerous prison on the outskirts of Guayaquil, killing a prison guard.
In 2023, Ecuador saw several more car bomb attacks as part of a wave of criminal violence that has plagued the Andean nation since early 2021.
