Police said Colonel Porfirio Cedeno, who led an air force special operations unit, was the passenger in a van taking him to a military ceremony.

More than 20 shots were fired and the driver was hit in the leg in the attack in the city of Guayaquil, said police official Santiago Tuston.

Cedeno was traveling from Guayaquil to the city of Manta about three hours away. Both cities have been caught up in fighting between rival drug gangs that has seen homicide rates in Ecuador soar.

The van ended up stalled in the middle of the road with broken windows and riddled with bullet holes, AFP observed.

Police recovered more than 20 casings at the scene. Investigators believe the gunmen were also traveling by car.

Ecuador is home to an estimated 20 criminal gangs employed in trafficking, kidnapping and extortion, sowing terror in the country of 18 million squeezed between the world's biggest cocaine producers, Peru and Colombia.

In recent years, the South American nation has been plunged into violence by the rapid spread of transnational cartels that use its ports to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.

In 2023, the country registered a record 47 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

Under a state of emergency and military crackdown launched by President Daniel Noboa, in office since November 2023, that figure dropped to 38 per 100,000 last year, according to official data.

In a message on social network X, ex-president Rafael Correa paid homage to his "dear friend" Cedeno, who had served as a member of his security team.