2024-01-16 23:43:00
QUITO (AP) — The Ecuadorian police said on Tuesday that they prevented an attack by criminal groups that had left a load of 23 blocks of dynamite in a police station very close to one of the main food supply centers in the center of the capital.
Colonel Mauricio Chacón, deputy police chief of the San Roque area, in the heart of the colonial center of Quito, stated that units of the anti-explosive squad found the dynamite around midnight on Monday.
This takes place at a time when the government of President Daniel Noboa seeks to stop a spiral of violence unleashed since last week by organized crime organizations linked mainly to drug trafficking.
On their account on the social network “We are not going to step aside and we are going to continue working in this territory.”
He assured that the eventual explosion of that dynamite, near a fairly frequented market in Quito, might have caused great destruction.
Similar actions have been recorded in other areas of the country, such as in the city of Cuenca, on Monday, when explosives were located near a police station located very close to a children’s educational center, which was evacuated. Authorities have confirmed dozens of calls reporting alleged threats with explosives, 90% of which have been discarded, according to authorities.
The mayor of Quito, Pabel Muñoz, interviewed by the Teleamazonas television channel, stated that “all this is part of a psychological war that seeks to intimidate citizens, generate anguish.”
Military and police patrols, carrying long weapons, set up mobile checkpoints on the streets to neutralize possible threats, and force occupants of public and private transportation vehicles to get off for more exhaustive inspections of both people and vehicles.
The wave of violence intensified a week ago following the disappearance from a Guayaquil prison of drug trafficking kingpin Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, leader of Los Choneros, with links to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel. A day later, another regional leader of the Los Lobos gang, Fabricio Colón Pico, escaped. None have been located.
After this, the government initially declared a state of emergency and a curfew between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., and a week ago it declared a state of internal armed conflict, with which the armed forces will actively intervene to control 22 criminal gangs. The uniformed officers have turned out with a large presence in the streets.
Just a week ago, thousands of Ecuadorians witnessed the assault of a television channel that was broadcasting live by a group of hooded armed men, who were subdued by the police.
Ecuadorian authorities have recognized that the prison system is one of the main axes of the insecurity crisis facing the nation. Since 2021, more than a dozen prison massacres between gangs have left around 450 inmates murdered. All types of crimes such as murders, hitmen, extortion, and others are commanded from prisons, according to the official version.
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