Day of high tension in Ecuador. A series of explosions were recorded this Tuesday, January 9, in different cities of the country, including Quito, the capital, and at least seven police officers were kidnapped. In addition, the authorities confirmed the escape of several prisoners. Among them, Fabricio Colón Pico Suárez, accused of planning an attack against Attorney General Diana Salazar. Violence increases a day after President Daniel Noboa decreed a state of emergency for 60 days in response to prison riots and the escape of the feared leader of the 'Los Choneros' gang, Adolfo Macías, alias 'Fito'.
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The wave of violence escalates in Ecuador. Vehicle fires, explosions, prisoner escapes and the kidnapping of police officers were recorded this January 9 in the country, in an apparent reaction by criminal groups to the state of emergency, decreed a day earlier by President Daniel Noboa.
The local press reported the escape of another high-profile criminal early this Tuesday: Fabricio Colón Pico Suárezaka 'The Wild One'known for allegedly planning an attack to kill the nation's attorney general, Diana Salazar.
His escape was confirmed hours later by the National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), which noted that the man evaded security checkpoints amid clashes between police officers and prisoners.
A police report cited by the local newspaper 'El Universal' indicates that 39 prisoners escaped from the Riobamba social rehabilitation center, in central Ecuador. The SNAI confirmed that 12 of those who fled were recaptured.
Colón Pico was supposed to be relocated to another prison on Monday, but when the agents were preparing to transfer him, incidents broke out that ended in his escape, Rodrigo Cáceres, governor of the province of Chimborazo, to which he belongs, told the digital 'Diario de Riobamba'. that city.
This is the second escape in just two days of a high-profile criminal from the country's prisons. On Sunday the leak of Adolfo Macías, alias 'Fito', the feared leader of the criminal gang 'Los Choneros'. Precisely that fact, added to the riots in six prisons, motivated the state of emergency for 60 days, decreed by the president on Monday, January 8.
The whereabouts of the dangerous drug kingpin, whose gang is suspected of being behind the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, remains uncertain.
Kidnapping of police officers and explosions, extreme violence spreads in Ecuador
The Ecuadorian Police confirmed that seven of its agents were kidnapped. Three were kidnapped at dawn by criminal groups, the patrol in which they were traveling suffered an explosion, in Quevedo, about 140 kilometers southwest of the capital. A fourth uniformed man was kidnapped in Quito and more information is awaited on the rest.
As if that were not enough, Ecuadorians experienced a day of explosions in several locations.
The first detonations were reported in the city of Esmeraldas, in the north of the country, where a vehicle was incinerated. All at a time when prisoners from prisons demanded that no transfers of detainees or controls be carried out in the prisons.
However, the Secretary of Communication of the Presidency, Roberto Izurieta, warned that his Government would not give in to these pressures.
Several burned cars were also recorded in the cities of Riobamba, Azogues and Guayaquil.
In Quito, there was an explosion on a bridge and the fire of a vehicle with gas bombs inside. A motorcycle was also incinerated on the outskirts of the capital.
The authorities indicated that they arrested two people suspected of one of the explosions in the city, from whom they seized a firearm and 16 explosive devices. “The antisocials would have left a suitcase abandoned and incinerated in the back” of a Police unit in Quito, the institution said.
The detonations even targeted the exterior of the home of the president of the National Court of Justice, Iván Saquicela, in Quito. However, there were no injuries or fatalities.
“It could be a coincidence or not, but it should be investigated because it happens in front of my home,” he said. The judge asked that his security be increased.
Ecuador is going through an “unprecedented security crisis,” described the mayor of the capital, Pabel Muñoz, who assured that he will reinforce surveillance actions in critical areas and requested the national government “to militarize the city's strategic facilities to guarantee its functioning”.
Noboa, who last November assumed the Presidency of a country with an enormous security challenge – after years as one of the calmest territories in the region – warns that he is not going to “negotiate with terrorists” and promised that he will not rest “until “return peace to all Ecuadorians.”
With Reuters, AP, EFE and local media
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