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 reportedly 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.
Twenty people were killed at once in one horrifying massacre in the eco paradise.
But 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.
Do you know what happened to the man who was reportedly lynched? Email: miriam.kuepper@mailonline.co.uk
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’
Latin America has for decades been synonymous with the drug trade thanks to ruthless cartels and criminal gangs whose power and brutality cannot by tamed by the government or the armed forces.
Some countries like Ecuador had managed to remain relatively peaceful for decades, despite bordering the notorious cocaine hotspots of Colombia and Peru.
But the coastal nation has seen murder rates soar in recent years as drug lords and criminal masterminds dug their hooks into fresh territory and exploited its ports for maximum profit.
In 2020, Mexico – the world-renowned epicentre of sicario savagery – had a murder rate was 29 per 100,000 people with Colombia trailing close behind at 26.8. Ecuador sat at a comparatively minuscule 7.7.
Three years on, Ecuador’s murder rate had shot up to a horrifying 44.5 per 100,000 people – far outstripping both Mexico and Colombia to become the murder capital of Latin America.
Gangland shootouts now commonly rock the streets – particularly in the bustling port of Guayaquil and Esmeraldas, where the crime rate and incidences of violence have skyrocketed.
In March, 22 people were killed in a bitter gun battle in Guayaquil’s northern neighbourhood of Nueva Prosperina as members of the infamous Los Tiguerones syndicate carried out a hit on a rival group.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, who last weekend won re-election, has vowed to crack down on the criminal gangs tearing the nation apart.
On the banks of the scenic Napo River in the Amazon, gangs are battling over territory
A man who was violently killed in the Sucumbios province is pictured above. His body was found ridden by bullets
Ecuador police officers are pictured above at the scene of an assassination in the Sucumbios region
A trio of severed heads are found wrapped in black bags after a cartel killing spree
A mutilated body hangs from a bridge in Ecuador
The bullet-riddled corpse of one victim of a cartel shootout lies sprawled on the deck of a blood-soaked boat in the port town of Porsorja
Ecuador’s National Police presents individuals detained during a police operation following gang clashes that resulted in multiple victims, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in this handout photo distributed on March 7, 2025
But despite a range of drastic steps, including declaring a state of emergency and mobilising the military to fight the cartels in January 2024, the gang violence shows few signs of abating, making the life of law enforcement officers a living hell.
Now, unsatisfied with simply shooting their targets dead, Los Tiguerones – and other groups like Los Lobos and Los Choneros, as well as foreign gangs surging into Ecuador – are developing their own signature methods to mark their territory and warn anyone who would dare try to stand in their way.
From cutting out the hearts of their rivals to hanging their prey from bridges in medieval-style public executions, Ecuadorian gangs use a variety of tactics to display their dominance.
It is not yet known whether gangs played a role in the alleged lynching of the man, widely reported to be ‘English’, who was said to be held by uniformed officers on suspicion of shooting a local man dead.
Six hours after the man’s 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.
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
It said police reinforcements had taken time to reach the area because of its remoteness and difficult access.
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.
