Poisoning due to the consumption of adulterated drinks has caused the death of 12 people since Tuesday in Ecuador, the Ministry of Health announced on Friday.

A total of 52 people were poisoned following the ingestion of these drinks containing methyl alcohol, for industrial use, in the provinces of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas (west) and Esmeraldas (north-west ), according to the latest official report.

About twenty participants in a funeral wake were thus poisoned in Santo Domingo.

Authorities seized more than 50,000 liters of alcohol during various operations in connection with this case.

“Irresponsible people have marketed illegal alcohol,” Health Minister José Ruales got carried away on Friday on a radio.

In rural communities in Ecuador, home-made alcohol consumption is common.

In 2017, it caused the death of 25 people and in 2011 about fifty.