Idyllic rivers snaking through the lush rain forest in Amazon eco reserves hide the deadly violence ripe in the Ecuador-Colombia border region where a man was just savagely murdered by a baying mob.
The crowd allegedly lynched the man, who has been identified in local reports as a British national, and burned him alive after storming a police station where he had been taken into custody for an alleged shooting.
Ecuadorian newspaper Ecuavisa said the horror killing happened in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve in Ecuador’s Amazon region, which is a popular eco-tourism area.
It is the second largest reserve of the South American country’s 56 national parks and protected areas, and is located in the Putamayo Canton in Sucumbios Province.
Violence in the Amazonian province where the lynching reportedly happened has dramatically escalated as gangs demonstrate their brutal influence, leaving behind bullet-ridden and tied up bodies, with victims often showing signs of torture.
Local authorities declared a state of emergency last year after 159 people were killed in Sucumbios alone, a nearly 70 per cent increase in violent deaths in the region, as 20 people were killed at once in a horrifying massacre.
Massacres are not just ripe in Sucumbios, but in the whole of Ecuador, with 645 people killed in 175 massacres last year alone after a massive spike in killings in 2020 as gangs battle for territory.
The Foreign Office warns against ‘all but essential travel’ to scenic areas around the Ecuador-Colombia border like the Sucumbios province ‘due to the presence of organised crime linked to the production and trafficking of drugs’.
The armed gangs in these areas are known for kidnapping tourists, like a British woman and her friend, who were abducted while canoeing in the Cuyabeno nature reserve in 2012 before being rescued by local military.
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A picture of the reportedly British man when he was in police custody. His identity has been obscured pending formal identification
Ecuadorian newspaper Ecuavisa said the horror killing happened in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (pictured) in Ecuador’s Amazon region, which is a popular eco-tourism area
Violence in the Amazonian province where the lynching reportedly happened has dramatically escalated as gangs demonstrate their brutal influence, leaving behind bullet-ridden and tied up bodies, with victims often showing signs of torture. Pictured above are two victims who were shot dead in the Sucumbios province
The Foreign Office warns against ‘all but essential travel’ to scenic areas around the Ecuador-Colombia border like the Sucumbios province ‘due to the presence of organised crime linked to the production and trafficking of drugs’
The unnamed man who was allegedly lynched, widely reported to be ‘English’, was said to be held by uniformed officers on suspicion of shooting a local man dead.
But six hours after his arrest a crowd stormed the police station, dragged him onto the street and and set him alight in front of officers who said they were afraid to intervene.
The British national is said to have been handed over to police by locals around 6am local time on Sunday before being murdered just after midday.
Ecuadorian newspaper Extra reported officers who arrested him decided not to intervene when a baying mob forced their way into the police station ahead of his transfer out of the area.
They stood back, the newspaper said, in order to avoid being attacked themselves and to avoid additional damage to state property.
It said police reinforcements had taken time to reach the area because of its remoteness and difficult access.
A British man is alleged to have been lynched in Ecuador after being linked to the shooting of a member of the local community (pictured: crowds gathered at what is thought to be the scene of the shooting)
The victim of the shooting is taken from the scene
A local TV station, reporting on the two deaths, said: ‘In the early hours of Sunday, April 20, in the parish of Playas de Cuyabeno, at the closure of an event that took place for the anniversary of the Kichwa community, an incident occurred where as a result two people died.
‘Those two people were a community member from the area and another person of British nationality who died due to the severity of his burns.’
The Ecuadorian man killed has been named locally as Rodrigo Chavez.
A third man was reportedly arrested over the Briton’s killing.
Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo reported that police were yet to issue a statement, as they were still gathering information on the case.
