# Ecuador pool hall massacre deepens pressure on authorities in Santo Domingo

At least seven people were shot dead in a pool hall in the Ecuadoran city of Santo Domingo, adding another massacre to the country’s rapidly worsening cycle of gang violence.

The France 24 report carried AFP’s account that gunmen opened fire in the nightlife district of Santo Domingo, about 150 kilometers west of Quito. National police said seven people died from gunshot wounds, and investigators were hunting those responsible.

Purported security camera footage circulating online showed several masked attackers firing at two men outside the hall before entering and continuing to shoot. AFP said the footage had not been independently verified, so it should be treated as background rather than confirmed evidence. Still, it illustrates the scale and brazenness of the attack as described by local media and police.

The massacre fits a pattern that has become grimly familiar in Ecuador. A pool hall in a tourist city was attacked the previous month, leaving at least nine dead, and in April armed men killed 12 people at a cockfighting ring near Santo Domingo. Such killings show that violence is not confined to one neighborhood or one type of venue; it can strike social spaces where people gather for leisure and where armed groups can move quickly.

The national context is severe. The report says Ecuador’s homicide rate rose from six per 100,000 residents in 2018 to 38 in 2024. Between January and May this year, there were more than 4,051 homicides, according to official figures, making it the most violent start to a year in the country’s recent history. President Daniel Noboa has promised a crackdown, but the report says widespread operations and repeated states of emergency have produced little reduction in the violence.

Drug trafficking is at the center of the crisis. Ecuador’s strategic location, dollarized economy and corruption among some officials have helped cartels use the country as a logistics hub for cocaine shipments. The report notes that 73 percent of the world’s cocaine production passes through Ecuadorian ports, and that the country seized a record 294 tons of drugs in 2024.

Against that backdrop, the Santo Domingo killings are more than a local crime story. They are a measure of how embedded organized violence has become. Police can search for the shooters, but the deeper challenge is a security environment in which massacres keep repeating and public confidence keeps eroding.