A distraught footballer hid under his bed and listened in horror as masked intruders kidnapped his wife and five-year-old son.
Jackson Rodriguez, who plays in Ecuador, is begging for the safe return of his family after men ransacked his property at 3am on Wednesday morning.
It appears the break-in gang were seeking to capture the Emelec star amid a wider reign of chaos and violence from organised crime groups in the South American nation.
Police confirmed the men, who broke down Rodriguez’s front door, demanded to know if the defender was at the property before taking off with his loved ones.
Rodriguez says he peered out of the window and saw them in an ominous ‘gray-colored double-cab pickup truck’.
It comes less than two weeks after Ecuador declared a state of emergency in multiple provinces, including the capital Quito, on the eve of the run-off presidential election.
A Ecuadorian footballer is pleading for his wife and son to be freed after they were kidnapped
Jackson Rodriguez hid under the bed as he heard masked intruders break into his house
Gang violence has seen murder rates soar in Ecuador (pictured: handout photo of individuals detained after gang clashes in Guayaquil)
The coastal nation has become the murder capital of South America, with a horrifying murder rate of 44.5 per 100,000 people in 2023, with gangland shootings ruling the streets and rivals cutting out each other’s hearts.
On Easter Sunday, a British man was lynched and burnt alive by a mob in a police station in a popular tourist area, where he had been taken into custody for an alleged shooting.
Footballer Rodriguez plays in the top flight of Ecuadorian football. His city of Guayaquil, where he lives in the Mucho Lote 2 neighbourhood, has been badly hit by violence.
Just last month, 22 people were killed in a bitter gun battle in Guayaquil’s northern neighbourhood of Nueva Prosperina as members of the infamous Los Tiguerones syndicate carried out a hit on a rival group.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, who recently won re-election, has vowed to crack down on the criminal gangs tearing the nation apart.
As well as the gory tactic of cutting out hearts, some of the most fierce gangs are turning to beheadings.
Not only is the grisly practice used as a shock-and-awe tactic to discourage normal citizens from defying or challenging the cartels, but it is also seen as a way to send messages directly to rival gang members or even government officials.
ESPN says that there were 2,345 violent deaths reported between January and March in Ecuador.
In December, footballer Pedro Perlaza was kidnapped along the coast in Esmeraldas before being rescued a few days later.
