Former football star Mario Pineida killed as violence escalates in Ecuador

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Former Fluminense star Mario Pineida is killed in attack as Ecuadorian president responds to most violent year in history.

Published On 18 Dec 2025

Ecuadorian police have said that Mario Pineida, a 33-year-old Barcelona de Guayaquil defender and former national team player, was shot dead in an apparent attack as violence escalates in the Andean nation.

Another person who police did not identify was also killed in the incident on Wednesday, and a third was wounded.

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Ecuador’s interior ministry confirmed Pineida’s death without providing details. Barcelona de Guayaquil said in a statement that its fans are saddened by Pineida’s death.

Pineida played eight games for Ecuador, including qualifying for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, but was not involved in the team qualifying for the 2026 edition.

His last game for Ecuador was at the 2021 Copa America, as a late substitute in a group-stage game against Brazil. He also went to the 2017 edition.

Pineida started his professional career at Independiente del Valle, where he played from 2010 to 2015. He then moved to the club of the coastal city of Guayaquil in 2016 and won two league titles there. The defender also had a brief spell at Brazil’s Fluminense in 2022.

Ecuadorian media reported the incident took place in the region of Samanes in the north end of Guayaquil, which lies 265 kilometres (165 miles) southwest of the capital, Quito.

Digital news outlet Primicias reported Pineida was attacked by two people riding motorcycles, who opened fire on him, his mother and another woman.

Ecuador's Mario Pineida playing for Barcelona

Ecuador, once one of Latin America’s safest countries, has become a key cocaine transit hub between top producers Colombia and Peru, and consumers around the world.

Guayaquil has become a hotspot for gang violence linked to drug trafficking and several football players in Ecuador have been targeted in recent months.

Car bombings, shootings and extortion have been on the rise in the region, which recorded 1,900 murders between January and September – the highest toll in Ecuador.

Ecuador is expected to have its most violent year on record with more than 9,000 homicides, according to the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organized Crime. That figure was at 7,063 violent deaths last year and a then-record 8,248 in 2023.

President Daniel Noboa has pledged to fight criminal organisations that have expanded their operations in Ecuadorian territory in connection with international drug cartels.

In November, a 16-year-old footballer of Independiente del Valle died from a stray bullet, also in Guayaquil.

Two months earlier, three players from Ecuador’s second division – Maicol Valencia and Leandro Yepez, both players of Exapromo Costa, and Jonathan Gonzalez, of 22 de Junio – died from gunshot wounds.

In October, local footballer Bryan Angula was wounded in a shooting.

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