2024-01-18 00:01:49
– The prosecutor who investigated the hostage taking murdered
Cesar Suarez, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation into the hostage taking which took place live on the set of an Ecuadorian public television channel on January 9, was assassinated.
Published today at 1:01 a.m.
Police present at the scene of the assassination of Cesar Suarez.
AFP
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 was assassinated on Wednesday, while the country is under the regime of state of emergency, in “war” once morest drug trafficking gangs.
“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.
Live broadcast continued
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. The rapid intervention of the police made it possible to put an end to the hostage-taking without causing any casualties and to arrest thirteen attackers.
A few images remain in memory: the signs made in front of the camera by the attackers boasting to claim their gangs. Or the shotgun placed on the head of an unfortunate reporter.
Several mutinies in the country’s prisons
This assault on a television set was the media high point of the chain of violence triggered by the escape a few days earlier of the feared leader of the Choneros gang, Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”.
Several mutinies and hostage-taking of guards affected prisons, and in the streets of Guayaquil or the capital Quito, gangs sowed terror with explosions or shots aimed at the police. To restore order, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared the country “at war” once morest gangs and sent more than 20,000 soldiers to the field. Violence in the country has left at least 19 dead.
Prosecutors are under threat from the twenty or so criminal organizations operating in Ecuador, once a haven of peace ravaged by violence following becoming the main export point for cocaine produced in the neighboring states of Peru and Colombia. .
In June, prosecutor Leonardo Palacios was killed by gunmen in the town of Duran, neighboring Guayaquil.
Corruption linked to drug trafficking
Diana Salazar reported direct death threats from Los Lobos, one of the main criminal organizations, whose leader, Fabricio Colon Picole, also escaped from prison last week.
Ecuadorian justice attacks criminals but also corruption linked to drug trafficking which has corrupted even the mysteries of the State.
The so-called “Metastasis” affair, “the biggest in history once morest corruption and drug trafficking” in Ecuador, according to the prosecutor, revealed at the end of last year “a criminal structure” involving prosecutors , prison officials and police officers “whose objective was to obtain impunity and freedom for those prosecuted or convicted” as well as to introduce prohibited objects into prison.
Politicians are also targeted. At the end of 2023, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Quito and Agustin Intriago, mayor of Manta (west), one of the country’s main cities, were also killed by criminals.
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