Soccer star Mario Pineida has shot himself to death in Ecuador, police said

Ecuadorian police on Wednesday said Mario Pineida, a 33-year-old Barcelona de Guayaquil defender and former national team player, was shot dead in an apparent attack as violence escalated in the Andean nation.

In this incident, one undisclosed police officer died, while a third was injured.

Ecuador’s Interior Ministry confirmed Pineida’s death without providing details. Barcelona de Guayaquil said in a statement that its fans are saddened by the death of Pineida. “Rest in peace,” the team wrote on another social media site in honor of Pineida.

Pineida played eight games for Ecuador but did not take part in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. His last game for Ecuador was in the 2021 Copa América, as a late substitute in the team’s match against Brazil. He also attended the 2017 show.

Pineida began his professional career at Independiente del Valle, where he played from 2010 to 2015. He then moved to the club in the coastal city of Guayaquil in 2016 and won two league titles there. The defender also had a short spell at Fluminense in Brazil in 2022.

Ecuadorian media reported that the incident took place in the Samanes region in northern Guayaquil, 165 kilometers southwest of the capital Quito.

Playing soccer in Ecuador can be very dangerous, as match-fixing criminals are part of a global criminal network that brings in $1.7 billion a year for organized crime groups, according to the latest United Nations estimate.

In November, a 16-year-old soccer player from Independiente del Valle was killed by a stray bullet, in Guayaquil. Miguel Nazareno was at home “when he unfortunately became a victim of the insecurity that affects our country,” the soccer team said in an Instagram post, citing a wave of criminal violence that began in Ecuador nearly five years ago.

In October, Ecuadorian soccer player Bryan “Cuco” Angulo became he was shot in the foot while attending a training session.

Two months earlier, Maicol Valencia and Leandro Yépez, both players of Exapromo Costa, and Jonathan González, aged 22 de Junio ​​died of gunshot wounds.

Escalating violence in Ecuador

Ecuador is expected to have its most violent year on record with more than 9,000 murders, according to the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organized Crime. That number was 7,063 violent deaths last year and a then-record 8,248 in 2023.

President Daniel Noboa is committed to fighting criminal organizations that have expanded their operations in Ecuadorian territory in relation to international drug trafficking companies.

Since 2021, Ecuador has experienced increased criminal violence by gangs working in collaboration with Colombia and Mexican carts involved in drug trafficking.

Strategically located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest producers of cocaine, it has become a major transit hub for the drug.

Noboa deployed troops to fight the violence – with little effect.

In the first half of this year, homicides in Ecuador increased by 47 percent compared to the same period in 2024, according to the Observatory of Organized Crime.

October, Ecuadoran the judge was killed while taking his children to school. Provincial police chief Colonel Giovanni Naranjo told the media Lobos gang – nominated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States – the attack was suspected.

And in October, authorities in Ecuador reported two attacks that left 14 people died and 17 were injured, some of the victims showing signs of torture.

A criminal gang violence continues unabated following June’s re-arrest of major drug busts in the country, Adolfo Macías after his escape from a maximum security prison in 2024. In July, the government of Ecuador he took out Macias in the United States, where he is facing multiple drug and gun trafficking charges.