The Ecuadorian Army reported, this Wednesday (10), about the detention of two armed people on the border with Peru, whom it classified as terrorists. “The military and police were received with rifle shots. As a result of the operation, two terrorists were detained,” the Ecuadorian Army reported on its account on the social network X.
In the possession of the two men, a rifle, two submachine guns, two pistols, a revolver, six magazines, 66 cartridges, four transmission radios and 64 small bundles of marijuana were found.
The military operation was carried out in accordance with Executive Decree 111, signed yesterday by the country's president, Daniel Noboa. With the act, Noboa declared the existence of an “internal armed conflict” in the country and ordered the Armed Forces to carry out military actions to combat organized crime groups.
The decree was signed shortly after armed and hooded men, already detained, invaded a television station in the city of Guayaquil and amid growing tension.
Ecuador experienced a day of terror this Tuesday (9), with cars on fire, attacks with explosives, kidnappings of police officers and uncertainty about the situation of prison officers taken hostage by inmates in prisons, about whom there was still no official information in this fourth.
DETAINEES
In a first assessment, the police reported last night that 70 people were arrested in connection with the violence in the country.
The Public Ministry (MP) of Ecuador reported today that a judge in the province of Loja accepted its request and ordered the preventive detention of six people.
“They were accused of alleged participation in the crime of terrorism. They are allegedly responsible for the explosions and burning of vehicles in various parts of the city”, announced the MP on his account on X.
Likewise, the MP reported that, in the province of Tungurahua, it will prosecute 15 people arrested for alleged terrorism because “they would have attempted to carry out attacks outside the social rehabilitation center in the city of Ambato, against police officers and prison guards”. The body explained that the detainees were in possession of revolvers, submachine guns and ammunition.
PRISONER ESCAPE
Ecuador is in a state of emergency for 60 days, with a curfew during the night and early morning, due to a series of incidents in prisons, which began on Monday (8), and the “supposed escape” of one of the criminals most dangerous in the country.
The incidents began when authorities carried out raids at a Guayaquil penitentiary in search of José Adolfo Macías, known as “Fito”, who apparently escaped over the weekend. He is the leader of Los Choneros, considered one of the most dangerous gangs in the country because of their alleged links with Mexican cartels.
Amid the declared state of emergency, Fabricio Colón Pico also escaped from prison, captured last week after the State Attorney General, Diana Salazar, mentioned an alleged plan to assassinate him. Salazar identified Pico as a member of Los Lobos, a criminal group that Noboa describes as “terrorist”.
#Ecuador #arrests #suspected #terrorists #border #Peru
