Ecuadorian police have confirmed the arrest of two people linked to the assassination of Mario Pineida, the Barcelona Sporting Club footballer who, on the afternoon of December 17, became another victim of the unstoppable violence in Guayaquil, the most violent city in the country. Pineida, who until then was one of the most notable stars of Ecuadorian football, found himself in a butcher’s shop in the Samanes sector, north of the city. A larger neighborhood, one of those places where routine mixes with the constant threat of death.
Local security chambers showed the horror of the crime and the coldness of the attackers. In the images, one of the assassins approached calmly, aiming directly at Pineida. The disconcerted footballer raised his arms, as if he thought he was just an ordinary robot. But that wasn’t the case. The man dressed in black, without hesitation, fired at least a dozen shots at him while the sound of bullets echoed through the scene with terrifying brutality.
Meanwhile, the other attacker, with a motorcycle helmet covering his face, quickly crept towards the gaming duo, who were a few meters away, on another screen. Within seconds, the woman fell to the ground, the victim of a barrage of gunfire. The workers, who tried to protect themselves from the bullets by taking refuge behind boxes, witnessed the violence that broke out at that time. But before leaving, the hitman from Pineida approached the woman’s body and, with the same cold, shot her.
The scene, which in addition to being recorded in the rooms in memory of their testimonies, turned into another painful chapter in the chain of tragedies that mark the daily life of Guayaquil, where violence takes place without warning, everywhere. A scene where fear has become a daily companion for those who live in the city.
Pineida joins the list of footballers murdered in 2025, the most violent year in Ecuador’s history. This is the fifth to fall. Three other players survived armed attacks, victims of assassins. The year began with an attack on Richard Mina, of La Liga de Quito, inherited a ham robot in Guayaquil. In September, the violence reached its peak: three footballers were attacked in the space of a few days. Maicol Valencia and Leandro Yépez, from the Exapromo Costa club, were trained in a hotel in Manta, on the central coast of Ecuador. Barely a week later, Jonathan González, 31, was shot in the head at his home in Esmeraldas, a border town with Colombia. This crime would later reveal the obscure link between sports gaming mafias and Ecuadorian football.
Jonathan González had received a threat to lose a match which ended in a draw. The pressure to break up parties has turned into a deadly game for football players. The list of victims continues: Ariel Suárez, 21, player of the Orense club, survived an armed attack in Machala, even though his couple is in critical condition. La Liga side Portoviejo’s Bryan Angulo also emerged unscathed from an attack as he headed to his training camp.
In November, the assassination of Miguel Nazareno, one of the promises of Ecuadorian football, returned to the country. The young athlete, aged just 16, was shot in the head at his home in Guayaquil, a crime that reflects the growing violence affecting football players in Ecuador. The constant threat of assassins, the pressure of sports games and the corruption linked to partygoers have transformed football into a high-risk sport. The actors, who should be admired, have become victims, stuck between the new niche that the mafias have found and the inoperability of a State incapable of controlling the spiral of violence.
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