crime
Gang fighting in Ecuador: senior prosecutor killed
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa has sent soldiers to fight criminal gangs. photo
© Dolores Ochoa/AP
Amid fierce fighting between criminal gangs and state security forces, a prosecutor is brutally murdered. “This crime will not go unpunished,” says the Attorney General.
There had previously been an operation of around 1,000 police and armed forces in a prison complex in Guayaquil, as the Ecuadorian newspaper “El Universo” reported. “The criminals and terrorists will not stop us,” said Attorney General Diana Salazar. “This crime will not go unpunished.”
Among other things, Suárez investigated the alleged gang members who stormed a studio of the state television station TC Televisión last week and took numerous hostages. President Daniel Noboa then issued a decree declaring that Ecuador was in an internal armed conflict and sent the armed forces to fight the gangs. He declared 22 criminal groups to be terrorist organizations and non-state warring parties that must be eliminated.
Previously, criminal gangs had fought violently in the prisons of the South American country and had taken control of numerous guards. According to the prison administration, the head of the powerful gang “Los Choneros”, Adolfo Macías alias “Fito”, and the leader of the gang “Los Lobos”, Fabricio Colón Pico, apparently managed to escape.
More than 20,000 missions
As a result, at least 1,975 people have been arrested in over 20,800 operations in the past few days, the police announced on Wednesday. Noboa has now also called for support from the USA and other countries in the fight against increasing violence.
The security situation in Ecuador had recently deteriorated dramatically. The murder rate of 46.5 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants last year was the highest in the history of the once peaceful Andean nation and one of the highest in Latin America. Multiple gangs with ties to powerful Mexican cartels are fighting for control of drug trafficking routes. Ecuador is a major transit country for cocaine from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia that is smuggled to the United States and Europe.
Communication from the Attorney General’s Office Report Ecuavisa Post Police Report El Universo Post Police about those arrested