Mayor Jorge Maldonado Murdered in Ecuador: Second Crime in Three Days – Updates and Details

2024-04-19 18:20:00

Within hours of the referendum in Ecuador, Mayor Jorge Maldonado was murdered: it is the second crime in three days (X: @rgarcia25S)

Jorge Maldonadomayor of the Portovelo canton, in Ecuadorwas murdered this Friday in what is already the second crime of this nature in three days in the country.

“This morning, Jorge Maldonado, mayor of the Portovelo canton, #ElOro, was victim of gunshots that caused his death“, indicated the police in a message on X.

The event occurred around 09:20 local time in the mining city while the official was carrying out personal tasks. There, in the middle of the street, he was approached by two subjects not yet identified they attacked him with shots and, later, they fled. Immediately, the Police deployed an operation in the area that, although it did not manage to find those responsible, it did allow identify an abandoned motorcycle in “the Y sector of Osorio, with similar characteristics to the one used in this event”, which will be added to the expertise.

Maldonado’s body following being shot at in the streets of El Oro (X: @rgarcia25S)

Images spread on social networks show the area cordoned off by the Police and captured the moment in which the mayor’s body is taken in the back of a van to a health center where his death was confirmed.

This is how they took Maldonado’s body to a health center (X: @rgarcia25S)

Maldonado’s murder occurred less than 48 hours following, this Wednesday, Jose Sanchez, municipal head of the mining town of Camilo Ponce Azuay, was also the victim of a gunshot wound. Then, the authorities confirmed “murder in cold blood of the fellow mayor”, in the midst of the wave of violence that the country has been going through for months, when the president Daniel Noboa began a war once morest organized crime and deployed security operations in accordance with this “internal armed conflict.”

Last October, Sánchez had already reported to the press and the Prosecutor’s Office an alleged attack on his home, at a time when the municipality he led was facing security problems. illegal minery and that, as occurs in El Oro, is located in transit areas to the coast, where the main drug trafficking axis is.

Likewise, these crimes took place in the eve of referendum powered by Noboa. This Sunday, Ecuadorians will go to the polls to express their will regarding the toughening of sentences to be applied in cases of organized crime, as well as on the extradition of fellow nationals and the elimination of prison benefits for those who are convicted in cases of this nature. In total there will be 11 questions that will seek to give the authorities more tools to continue their fight.

This Sunday, Ecuador will vote in a referendum on security and Justice in the midst of the fight once morest organized crime (AP)

Since the beginning of the year, when some drug kingpins escaped from their prisons, the wave of violence and insecurity, which forced the Executive to use all its resources to disrupt these gangs and restore peace in the country. Even from January 2023, at least a dozen politicians died in the hands of hitmen.

Among them, in addition to the two already mentioned, the case of the presidential candidate stands out Fernando Villavicenciomurdered shortly before the elections, while leaving a campaign event, and that of the mayor of the coastal province of San Vicente, Brigitte García, in March of this year.

(With information from AFP and EFE)

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