In less than 48 hours, three major acts of violence occurred in Ecuador. On Thursday, October 5, a public official was murdered and a former mayor was kidnapped. Then, on Friday, October 6, in the afternoon, six inmates, who were suspected of shooting former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, were murdered inside a prison.
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Genaro Reasco, a renowned prosecutor from the city of Babahoyo, was shot when he was driving his car in the Dos Puertas sector in the province of Guayas. Genaro was in charge of investigations into cases of violent deaths.
The murder of this prosecutor joins other similar ones that occurred in previous months, such as the cases of prosecutors Leonardo Palacios and Édgar Escobar, shot in Durán and Guayaquil, respectively. And the attorney general, Diana Salazar, reported in June that she had received death threats.
Also on Thursday, October 5, in the province of Guayas, Mariana Mendieta, former mayor of a municipality near Guayaquil, was kidnapped while visiting the construction of a winery in broad daylight and in the midst of the militarization of the municipality due to the wave of violence.
Mendieta’s kidnapping was publicly warned by the current mayor, Luis Chonillo, who last May survived an attack in which two of his bodyguards and one other person died, which led him to spend time in hiding and dispatch virtual way.
The general commander of the National Police, Fausto Salinas, told the local press that a series of raids on properties had already been carried out without satisfactory results, while the military surrounded the municipal headquarters of Durán to guard it, according to local media reports.
Prison violence in the province of Guayas
The most recent incident was yesterday afternoon in a Guayas penitentiary center where six male inmates were murdered inside the prison. According to local media and human rights organizations such as ‘SOS Cárceles Ecuador’, among the fatalities would be the murderers of former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
The National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI) confirmed the events that occurred on Friday afternoon.
A strange case of prison violence that the Ecuadorian authorities are already investigating and that leaves doubts about the case of the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio.
Former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa collected the information provided by the organization ‘SOS Cárceles Ecuador’ on the social network ‘X’ to draw attention to the seriousness of what happened at the Guayas Male Freedom Prevention Center and launch hypotheses about those responsible. of the death of Villavicencio.
However, outgoing President Guillermo Lasso promised “neither complicity nor cover-up” to get to the bottom of the murders, in a post on social media platform X.
The Minister of the Interior of Ecuador, Juan Zapata, had already announced the completion of the report on those responsible for the Villavicencio assassination. The gunmen were feeling threatened in this penitentiary center and would have requested a transfer.
Violent scenario on the eve of the presidential elections
Ecuador has become one of the most violent countries in Latin America, going from 5.8 to 25.32 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022 in the last five years, the highest figure since records have been recorded and which may reach to be around 40 in 2023, according to experts consulted by the Spanish news agency EFE.
This spiral of violence is mainly attributed to organized crime, which has made Ecuador one of the nerve centers of global cocaine trafficking.
The epicenter of organized crime is the province of Guayas, due to its strategic ports such as Guayaquil, from where shipments of cocaine leave for North America via high-powered boats.
With this scenario of crime and extreme violence in which a presidential candidate was murdered, Ecuador will hold the second round of the presidential elections scheduled for this October 15.
According to some surveys, the candidate most likely to win is businessman Daniel Noboa. His competitor is Luisa González, anointed by former leftist president Rafael Correa. Both have promised a tough line against organized crime.
With Reuters, EFE and local media
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