Police and troopers stand on the website the place a automobile exploded outdoors a shopping center, as a second automobile containing explosives was discovered close by, however didn’t detonate and was instantly neutralized, in accordance with Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg, in Guayaquil, Ecuador October 14, 2025. The writing on the truck reads “Firefighters Guayaquil.” | Photo Credit: Reuters
Explosives had been positioned on bridges “to block traffic”, Transportation Minister Roberto Luque wrote on X, describing the acts as “terrorism”. No casualties have been reported, although roads resulting in the affected areas stay closed.
Interior Minister John Reimberg accused “Los Lobos”, considered one of Ecuador’s largest legal gangs, which is designated a international terrorist organisation by the United States, and dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a now-defunct Colombian guerrilla motion with ties to the gang, of being behind the blasts.
Mr. Reimberg stated the assaults got here after safety operations destroyed “illegal mining operations” in northern Ecuador and detained ex-FARC members, often known as the Oliver Sinisterra Front.
No group instantly claimed duty for the blasts.
The State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs condemned the assaults in a submit on the social media platform X on Wednesday, calling these “brazen terrorist attacks against the Ecuadorian people”.
“We remain committed to the fight to eradicate organised crime and stand ready to support Ecuador in holding those responsible to account,” it wrote in a press release.
The Associated Press obtained a police report that confirmed the bridge construction within the metropolis of Naranjal, about 290 kilometres (180 miles) southwest of the capital, Quito, sustained injury “from the suspected detonation”.
Marcela Aguiñaga, prefect of the Guayas province, the place Naranjal is positioned, condemned the “criminal act” on X.
The different 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 as a consequence of a “possible collapse” of the construction. Images launched by native media confirmed rubble, twisted steel from the bridge and shattered windshields on not less than two buses.
On Tuesday night time, a pickup truck exploded in a busy industrial space of the coastal metropolis of Guayaquil, killing a person and wounding two different folks, whereas damaging eating places, buildings and a preferred shopping center.
The Attorney General’s Office stated it had launched an investigation into the blasts, whereas the federal government provided a reward for any info resulting in the identification and seize of these accountable.
The explosions are the most recent in a wave of violence that has engulfed the South American nation in recent times as legal enterprises have shifted their drug smuggling from extra militarised nations like Colombia to traditionally peaceable Ecuador. The authorities of President Daniel Noboa has struggled to beat again legal teams.
On Wednesday, Mr. Noboa stated in a public occasion that the nation can not “back down before people who want to terrorise Ecuadorian families”.
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 different automobile bomb assaults as a part of a wave of legal violence that has plagued the Andean nation since early 2021.
Published – October 16, 2025 09:42 am IST
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