Ecuador landslide death toll rises to 12

QUITO: The death toll from a landslide in southern Ecuador has risen to 12, authorities announced, with dozens of people still missing.

The toll climbed by one after a young male who had been pulled from the mud died in the health facility where he was being treated, the public prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday night.

Torrential rain overnight Sunday to Monday triggered the mudslide that buried dozens of homes and injured more than 30 people in the village of Alausi some 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of the capital Quito.

There were 67 people still missing, the SNGR risk management secretariat said, adding that 163 homes have been affected.

The area in the path of Sunday’s disaster had been in a designated yellow alert risk zone since February following other landslides.

The government opened three shelters for those affected by the landslide, which covered an area of more than 24 hectares (59 acres).

The same region was hit by an earthquake just over a week earlier in which 15 people were killed.

After months of heavy rains, the government last week declared a two-month state of emergency in 13 of the country’s 24 provinces, allowing economic resources to be redistributed to affected areas.

Rescuers and family members of those still trapped continued to work at the disaster zone on Wednesday.

Every so often they pulled personal belongings such as clothing and photographs from the mud.

President Guillermo Lasso has vowed to continue the rescue effort for “as long as is necessary,” but he was jeered by locals when he visited the site on Monday night.

Since the start of the year, heavy rains in Ecuador had already caused the deaths of 22 people, destroyed 72 homes and damaged more than 6,900 residences before Sunday’s landslide, according to the SNGR.

Meanwhile, around 2,000 indigenous protesters took to the streets of the capital Quito on Wednesday demanding that the constitutional court gives the green light for an impeachment process against Lasso.

The president has been accused by some opposition legislators of protecting a criminal organization headed by his brother-in-law Danilo Carrera and a former government official, Hernan Luque.

If the court allows the impeachment process to continue, the National Assembly would then need to vote by a two-thirds majority to remove Lasso from power.

Last June, Lasso survived another impeachment attempt by opposition lawmakers who accused him of being responsible for indigenous protests against the high cost of living.