The director of the Coastal Penitentiary, The largest and most populated prison in Ecuadorwas killed on Thursday in an attack where another prison officer who was with her at the time of the attack was injured, according to the National Comprehensive Care Service for Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the state penitentiary agency.
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The attack against Maria Daniela Icaza and his companion occurred around 6:00 p.m. local time (23:00 GMT) on the road between the town of Daule and the city of Guayaquil, where the Litoral Penitentiary is located.
Icaza was heading to the Guasmo Sur Hospital, located in the south of Guayaquil, when, according to local media, armed men intercepted the vehicle and shot at her, who was sitting in the passenger seat.
Initially, the SNAI reported that Icaza had been transferred alive to the hospital, but later confirmed her death.
Second murder in a week
This is the second murder of a prison official in nine days, after Alex Guevara, director of the Lago Agrio prison in the Amazonian province of SucumbĂos, was killed in similar circumstances on September 3.
The Litoral Penitentiary, officially named Guayas Men’s Deprivation of Liberty Center Number 1is the largest of the five prisons that make up the Guayaquil penitentiary complex, which holds approximately 12,000 inmates.
More than 6,000 are in the Litoral Penitentiary, which between 2021 and 2023 was the scene of the worst massacres caused by clashes between criminal gangs fighting for internal control, at least until the militarization of these centers ordered at the beginning of the year by President Daniel Noboa.
The entry of the military into the penitentiary facilities took place within the framework of the state of emergency and “internal armed conflict” declared by the ruler against organized crime, which is credited with a rise in criminal violence that has led Ecuador to become the Latin American country with the highest homicide rate, registering 47.2 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.
The wave of murders has also previously claimed the lives of other prison directors, as well as municipal authorities, including several mayors, and national officials, such as the presidential candidate. Fernando Villavicencio.
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