Ecuador mayor survives assassination attempt

An advertisement for Ecuadorian presidential candidate for the Movimiento Revolucion Ciudadana party, Luisa Gonzalez, is seen in Canuto, Ecuador, on August 19.//AFP

The mayor of an Ecuadoran city said Saturday he was the victim of an attempted assassination, a day before the country goes to the polls in general elections.

Francisco Tamariz, the mayor of the coastal town of La Libertad, said he escaped unharmed from the Friday evening attack, in which gunmen fired 30 shots at his vehicle.

“They tried to kill me,” Tamariz said on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that several people had witnessed the shooting.

In a subsequent Facebook post, he said he was returning late Friday night from nearby Guayaquil when two gunmen stepped out of a police car and opened fire on his armored van.

“In just seconds, they started to riddle the vehicle with bullets… without ever asking who…