How old was Brigitte Garcia? Ecuador's youngest mayor and her communications director found shot dead inside car

Ecuador's youngest mayor, Brigitte Garcia, and her communications director, Jairo Loor, were found dead early on Sunday, March 24. The bodies of Garcia, the 27-year-old mayor of San Vicente, and Jairo Loor, her adviser and the director of communications, were discovered inside a car in the Manabi province.

This comes as the country enters its third month of a state of emergency, first declared in January and extended last month, to combat an increase in gang-related crime.

Garcia is the most recent politician to be assassinated in Ecuador. Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assasinated last August.

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Brigitte Garcia was a member of the ex-president Rafael Correa's Citizen Revolution Movement party

Garcia, who worked as a nurse, made history by becoming Ecuador's youngest mayor. She was elected with 35% of the vote in the 2023 sectional elections, belonging to the Citizen Revolution Movement party, which was founded by former President Rafael Correa.

The car they were in was identified as the rental car on Sunday, however investigators are still looking into the tragedy.

The Ecuadoran national police shared a statement on social media

"This morning in the San Vicente sector, Manabí , 2 people were identified inside a vehicle without vital signs, with wounds from the impact of a firearm, which correspond to Jairo L. and Brigitte G. (mayor of the canton San Vincent)." (translated by Google)

Authorities later revealed that the gunshots "were not fired from the outside of the vehicle but from the inside."

Brigitte Garcia's death was referred to as an assassination by Correa and Luisa Gonzalez, the party's presidential candidate, in the most recent election held in the nation.

"I've just found out they've assassinated our fellow mayor of San Vicente Brigitte Garcia. I have no words, in shock, nobody is safe in Ecuador, NOBODY."

On the other hand, the administration of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa issued a statement denouncing the murders and stating that it was coordinating with law enforcement and the prosecutor's office to provide "immediacy in the investigation."

Brigitte Garcia and Loor were traveling in a rented car that was equipped with a GPS tracking device. To find more leads, police are currently monitoring the car's GPS system.

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Brigitte Garcia is not the first political figure to be assassinated in Ecuador in recent times

Eleven days before the general election in Ecuador in 2023, on August 9, 2023, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed while leaving a campaign rally in Quito, the country's capital. The incident claimed the life of one attacker.

Villavicencio was shot dead while leaving a campaign event. He took three gunshot wounds to the head while getting into a truck that had security surrounding it. After being taken to a local hospital, he was declared dead. Gisella Molina, a parliamentary candidate, and two police officers were among the nine injured people.

Villavicencio was a vocal opponent of organized crime and corruption. He was a politician, trade unionist, and journalist from Ecuador who entered the general election of 2023 to become the country's president. Last July, Agustín Intriago, the mayor of Manta, who had been recently re-elected, was shot dead.