This start of the year brought with it an alarming increase in violence in Ecuador, mainly in coastal areas, because after the discovery of 5 human heads hanging on a beach, another macabre discovery was registered.

This time it happened in the coastal province of Santa Elena, one of the hardest hit by violence linked to The dispute between organized crime gangs have led the country to record unprecedented homicide figures. In the town of Colonche, six charred and decomposing bodies were found by community members, according to local media reports. Police and forensic agents arrived at the scene to determine if they belonged to six young men who were reported missing on January 4th after traveling by motorcycle from the municipality of Pedro Carbo, in the province of Guayas, to Santa Elena. Major Andres Tamayo, police chief of Santa Elena, indicated that they presume it could be the same young men, since two burned motorcycles were also found in the area, according to EFE. However, the families of the missing men will have to wait for several tests to be carried out to determine if they are their loved ones, because, according to Tamayo, the bodies “are already in a state of decomposition and have also been burned alive.”

Santa Elena is one of the nine provinces under a state of emergency decreed by President Daniel Noboa on December 31st due to the increase in violence.

Furthermore, Ecuador has been living under a state of “internal armed conflict” since 2014, declared by Noboa to intensify the fight against organized crime. However, 2015 ended with a record number of homicides, totaling 9,300, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior.