Gunmen kill alleged gang leader outside Guayaquil airport, two teens detained

Gunmen waiting outside Guayaquil’s main airport turned flowers and stuffed toys into concealment for a close-range assassination that left one bystander dead, two others wounded and the terminal shut for about two hours. Police detained two teenagers after the shooting, which unfolded at the international arrivals exit of José Joaquín de Olmedo airport and showed how deeply organized crime has penetrated a place meant to be among the city’s most protected public spaces.

Security footage reportedly showed the pair standing outside the arrivals area with flowers and stuffed toys before one approached the victim, pulled a gun from behind a teddy bear and fired at close range. The man killed was identified by the Ecuador Interior Ministry and by Interior Minister John Reimberg as Carlos Alberto Suástegui Villanueva, 39, the alleged leader of Los Águilas in El Triunfo, a rural canton about an hour from Guayaquil. Authorities described him as a high-priority criminal target.

Officials said Suástegui Villanueva had four prior police records, including three arrests, two incarcerations and three reports naming him as a suspect. His reported criminal history included investigations for illicit association in 2015, murder in 2019 and unauthorized firearms possession in 2022. That record fit the profile of a figure already embedded in Ecuador’s wider criminal landscape, where gang leaders move through a system strained by extortion, drug trafficking and recurring violence.

The attack came just one day after President Daniel Noboa declared a fresh state of emergency in 10 provinces, including Guayas, underscoring how quickly violence has spilled into critical infrastructure. Los Águilas was designated a terrorist organization by Noboa in 2024, part of a broader crackdown on criminal groups that have challenged state control. Even with that pressure, the airport shooting showed that organized networks can still stage a brazen hit in daylight and expose civilians who happened to be nearby.

Ecuador has spent 846 days under a state of emergency over the past two and a half years, according to El País, a measure of how persistent the crisis has become. The killing outside José Joaquín de Olmedo airport was not just another gang attack. It was a public demonstration that the country’s security emergency now reaches the places where travelers, workers and bystanders should be least vulnerable.