2024-01-17 22:27:55
The prosecutor in charge of the investigation into the irruption of armed men live on the set of an Ecuadorian public television channel on January 9, briefly taking journalists and other employees hostage, was assassinated, a announced the prosecution on Wednesday.
• Read also: “Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot!”: A hostage-taking live on a television set in Ecuador
The live irruption of heavily armed, hooded men, pinning journalists and employees of the TC channel to the ground under threat in Guayaquil (southwest), shocked the country faced with a wave of violence triggered by drug trafficking gangs .
Amid the gunfire, the broadcast of these surreal images continued live for several minutes, despite the lights on the set going out and the camera freezing.
Until apparently the police intervened shouting “Police, police”.
Thirteen attackers were arrested, without causing any casualties, and their faces presented to the press a few days later.
According to the prosecution, the murdered prosecutor was responsible for determining which gang had carried out this assault.
Local media broadcast images of the prosecutor’s car with several bullet holes in the driver’s window.
“In response to the murder of our colleague César Suarez… I will be categorical: organized crime groups, criminals and terrorists will not stop our commitment to Ecuadorian society,” Attorney General Diana Salazar said in a video posted on X.
This assault on a TV set occurred shortly following the escape of the feared leader of the Choneros gang, Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, the starting point of a new episode of violence in the country ravaged by drug trafficking.
After Fito’s escape, several mutinies and hostage-taking of guards affected various prisons, relayed by frightening videos broadcast on social networks showing the captives threatened by the knives of masked inmates.
The gangs spread terror in the country’s streets before more than 20,000 soldiers were sent to restore order, with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declaring the country “at war”. More than 200 prison administration officials, hostages of mutineers, were released.
Violence in the country has left at least 19 dead.
Ecuador, once a haven of peace, is ravaged by their violence following becoming the main export point for cocaine produced in neighboring Peru and Colombia. Street murders increased by 800% between 2018 and 2023, from 6 to 46 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2023, 7,800 homicides were recorded and 220 tonnes of drugs seized
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