On March 6, about 20 armed members of the Tiguerones criminal group lurked in the hills on the outskirts of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s port hub and largest city. They had a clear goal: to take out their enemies, who were also, technically, Tiguerones.

In the early afternoon, the assassins broke into local homes, shooting dead their targets at close range. They chased others through the streets, wreaking havoc on the sector as residents ran for cover.

“We had just entered [our house] and [we heard] boom boom boom,” one resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, told InSight Crime. “We started to cry … it was terrifying.”

The attack was targeted at gang members, and lasted no more than a few minutes, said Lieutenant Colonel Herbie Guamaní. At the time of the massacre, Guamaní was police chief of Guayaquil’s vast northwestern district, which includes Socio Vivienda, the neighborhood where it happened.

Massacres, Alliances, and Betrayals: Inside the Gang War That Tore Ecuador’s Tiguerones Apart | Written by Gavin Voss and read by Daniel Reyes.

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