The wave of violence which is recorded in Ecuadorwhere drug gangs they fight over power in prisons and streets, left on Tuesday two dead cops and two wounded in different attacks, in addition to eight prison guards taken hostage.
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Organizations of the drug trafficking perpetrated nine attacks with explosives and bullets in response to the transfer of prisoners from the Guayas 1 prison in the port of guayaquil, in the southwest, one of the main massacre scenarios between inmates who leave some 400 dead since February 2021.
“We have had reactions from organized crime” in Guayaquil and in the oil port of Esmeraldas (northwest), Interior Minister Juan Zapata said at a press conference in Quito.
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We have had reactions from organized crime
The official rejected “these acts of violence that sadly today tarnish the police ranks and we have to mourn the loss of two Police officers” in guayaquil, he added.
The police institution specified that a patrol car was attacked by criminals with firearms, and two agents were killed. Another attack against a police facility, also in Guayaquil, left two officers injured, Zapata said.
Declaration of war by the parties
The state body that administers the prisons, SNAI, reported on its side that “there are eight servers that are retained” in a penitentiary in Esmeraldas.
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In the joint press conference with the Minister of the Interior, the Commander of the Police, General Fausto Salinas, stated that four guards had already been released, without offering details. Two alleged prison guards with explosives attached to their bodies appear in a video released by Twitter, in which a prisoner denounces “corruptionin prison management.
If they want war, war they will have
“If they want war, they will have war,” says the man with his face covered, adding that “we are going to exploit these guides.” With the support of the military and police, the SNAI initially transferred 200 prisoners from the Guayaquil jail Guayas 1 to other prisons to carry out planned “repairs” to cell blocks.
“The operation makes it possible to verify and improve the conditions of #CPLGuayas No. 1; reduce overcrowding, protect the security of the prison population. The presence of the State becomes effective, after many years of abandoning the system,” the entity said on Twitter. . This situation led to the retention of guards in Esmeraldas, according to the prisoner in the same video.
Tactical units activated
“Given the events that occurred in Esmeraldas and Guayaquil, we activated our tactical and investigative units, in order to maintain order and find the perpetrators of criminal acts,” the Police said on Twitter.
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🇺🇨 A vehicle exploded in front of a prison complex in Guayaquil and 15 prisoners were injured with a knife in Quito on Monday, in the unbridled violence in Ecuador’s prisons where 350 inmates have been brutally killed in the last year #AFP pic.twitter.com/Zhag7Ct57s
— Agence France-Presse (@AFPespanol) April 26, 2022
we activate our tactical and investigative units, in order to maintain order and find the perpetrators of criminal acts
Ecuador is facing a wave of violence due to drug trafficking, which has also left 61 police officers dead since last year. On Monday, in the style of Mexican cartel crimes, the bodies of two decapitated people were found hanging from a pedestrian bridge in Esmeraldas.
The war for power between drug organizations extends to the streets of Ecuador, where the homicide rate, which in 2021 almost doubled to 14 per 100,000 inhabitants, grew to 18 between January and October 2022. Located between Colombia and Peru , the world’s largest producers of cocaine, the nation went from being a drug transit point to an important distribution center for Europe and the United States.
In 2021, the country seized a record 210 tons of drugs, the vast majority of which were cocaine. So far this year, seizures total 160 tons.
AFP
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#Terror #Ecuador #attacks #explosives #Guayaquil