Ecuador has not spared its efforts to try to quell the crisis of violence unleashed last week by organized crime gangs, and that is The country remains under threat, with bomb alerts in several regions, due to an insecurity that the government has designated as “terrorist.”.
(Also: Video: this is how the prosecutor's car looked like from the takeover of the TV channel that was murdered in Ecuador)
Just this Wednesday, according to the Ecuadorian Attorney General, Diana Salazar, Carlos Suárez, the anti-mafia prosecutor who was investigating the assault by a group of 13 armed hooded men on the TC television channel on Tuesday, December 9, was shot dead in the city of Guayaquil. January.
(You can read: Ecuadorian prosecutor investigating assault on television channel was murdered)
“In light of the murder of our comrade César Suárez (…) vLet me be emphatic: organized crime groups, criminals, terrorists will not stop our commitment to Ecuadorian society.”said Salazar, who has also reported death threats from criminal organizations.
The attack against the sifcal occurred in the streets of Guayaquil.
Image taken from social networks @SACPolitical
Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo condemned the murder on behalf of the government of President Daniel Noboa. “We reject all forms of violence as a response to the conflict we are experiencing,” he said in a video shared with the media.
For now, The Ecuadorian police are carrying out operations to find those responsible for the crime, which occurred precisely in the country's main seaport.a key center of drug trafficking operations.
Suárez's truck had several bullet holes in the driver's window, according to photographs and videos.
(You can read: Ecuador says that it has already asked Colombia to receive the 1,500 prisoners)
Suárez had been in charge of determining which criminal group was behind the shocking takeover of the television channel in full live broadcast, which was one of the first criminal acts that Ecuador suffered after the escape days before of the powerful Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, the head of 'los Choneros', the main criminal gang in the country.
The day of terror on January 9 also included: the kidnapping and murder of police officers, explosive devices, burning vehicles and riots in prisons with around 200 hostages (released on Saturday).
Faced with this security crisis, President Daniel Noboa declared an “internal armed conflict,” branded 22 criminal gangs “terrorists” and deployed thousands of soldiers.
(Also: 'The conditions must be respected': Petro on prisoners that Ecuador would send to Colombia)
According to data published this Wednesday by the Presidency of Ecuador, In the first nine days of this “war” against the mafias, the authorities have carried out more than 20,800 operations, in which 1,975 gang members have been arrested (158 for “terrorism”) and five “terrorists” have been “killed”.
To reinforce this offensive, Noboa also confirmed this Wednesday that he will accept the cooperation of the United States to combat organized crime. “I would gladly accept the cooperation of the United States. We need equipment, weapons and intelligence,” Noboa said in an interview with CNN.
The murder this Wednesday of the anti-mafia prosecutor César Suárez adds to that of a prison officer on Tuesday in the province of Sucumbíos, at a time when the situation in Ecuador seemed to have calmed down and many citizens sought to gradually recover to normality, returning to their workplaces and visiting parks, shopping centers and restaurants, despite the fact that the state of exception remains in force with curfews every day from 11 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the morning.
(Keep reading: Ecuador: the reasons that explain why prisons are under the power of the mafia)
Precisely, on Tuesday, at the conference 'The armed outbreak in Ecuador, situation and perspectives', organized by the Peruvian Center for Development Studies and Promotion (Desco), security expert Fernando Carrión explained that Ecuadorians are “in a shock total”.
Little by little Ecuadorians return to their daily activities, although with fear of the return of violence.
“We have never had anything like this, we don't know whether to leave the house, go to the office…” said the expert. “I think that the population will get used to it, we will generate some strategies to take on these types of things,” he added.
Ecuador was for many years a country safe from drug trafficking, but It has been transformed into a new bastion of drug trafficking to the United States and Europe with gangs fighting for control of the territory and united in their war against the State..
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In the last five years, the homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants went from six to 46 in 2023, and the internal war hits rock bottom with an additional ingredient: prisons, many dominated by organized crime gangs and where since 2020 people have been murdered. more than 450 prisoners in massacres between rival groups.
This Wednesday, President Daniel Noboa confirmed himself in 10 of the 11 initial questions of his popular consultation proposal, the majority related to security. He only gave up on one that addressed the operation of casinos, considering that it is not a “timely” debate. The Constitutional Court of that country analyzes the 20 questions of the consultation, which could be voted on this year.
WILLIAM MORENO HERNÁNDEZ
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL
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