British honorary consul kidnapped in Ecuador

A British businessman and the former UK honorary consul in Guayaquil, Colin Armstrong, has been kidnapped by hooded men at his home in Ecuador’s Los Rios province, according to police reports.

Armstrong, 78, was snatched in the early hours of Saturday alongside a Colombian woman identified as his partner Katherine Paola Santos from his home in the town of Baba, according to a police report seen by The Guardian.

He was driven away in his own black BMW, which was later found dumped, the report said.

Kidnappings for ransom have become increasingly common in Ecuador as surging violent crime – largely fuelled by drug trafficking gangs – has transformed the country from among the safest in Latin America to the most dangerous in just five years, according to a 2022 Gallup poll.

In just a few years, Ecuador has gone from being an island of peace compared to its cocaine-producing neighbours, Colombia and Peru, to a nerve centre for foreign cartels and domestic drug gangs, which control the prisons – often with deadly results – and have branched out into kidnapping and extortion.

The Ecuadorian police said in a tweet on X: “Following an apparent criminal act against a businessman in the early hours of this morning in Los Rios, specialist police units are carrying out operative and investigative work on the ground.”

Armstrong, the founder and owner of Agripac, a large agricultural products company in Ecuador, left the role of honorary consul in 2016 and was replaced by his son Nicolas. He is also the owner of the 500-acre (202-hectare) Tupgill Park Estate in North Yorkshire, which was his childhood home. He was awarded an OBE and CMG in 2011.

A video posted on social media, purportedly of the house where Armstrong was kidnapped, shows blood-stained sheets on a bed and ransacked rooms.

A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “We are in contact with the Ecuadorian authorities following the disappearance of a British man and are supporting his family.”

President Daniel Noboa, who took office in late November, has promised to crack down on drug gangs and organised crime. The son of a banana magnate and a Guayaquil native he has pledged to take control of the port city which exports cocaine to the US, Europe and Asia.

His election followed a campaign marred by violence in which eight politicians were killed, including anti-corruption campaigner and presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.