Prosecution officer who headed the investigation for the invasion of masked armed men on the set of a public television station of Equatorial in a live broadcast on January 9 and the brief hostage-taking of journalists and other workers was murdered, the prosecutor's office announced yesterday Wednesday.
The invasion of armed hooded men, who ordered journalists and employees to the ground at the studio of the TC television network in Guayaquil (southwest), shocked the country, which has been faced with a wave of gang violence mainly engaged in drug trafficking and has declared a state of emergency “internal armed conflict”.
With gunfire in the background, the surreal images continued to be broadcast for several interminable minutes, even though the floodlights were turned off and the cameras did not transmit an image, until the police intervened.
No one was killed or injured and the 13 attackers were arrested, authorities said. They revealed the faces of the perpetrators to the press some 24 hours later.
According to his service, the prosecutor who was murdered was tasked with finding out which gang carried out the attack on the television station.
Media in the Latin American country broadcast images showing the prosecutor's car with several bullet holes in the driver's door window.
After “the murder of our colleague Cesar Suarez (…) I will be unequivocal: organized crime gangs, thugs and terrorists will not undo our commitment to Ecuadorian society,” said Attorney General Diana Salazar in a video uploaded to X (the former Twitter).
The attack on the television set took place after the escape of the feared leader of the Los Tsoneros gang, Adolfos Masias, or “Fito”which was the trigger of the new security crisis in the country.
After the escape of “Fito”, a series of riots broke out in the prisons, where dozens of employees were kidnapped. Terrifying videos of hostages being threatened by knife-wielding masked prisoners were uploaded to social media sites.
To regain control as gangs spread terror in prisons and on the streets, President Daniel Noboa ordered the deployment of more than 20,000 troops and declared a state of “war”. More than 200 prison service workers held hostage have since been released.
In the current wave of violence, the authorities are talking about at least 19 dead.
Once an oasis of calm in Latin America, Ecuador has been riven by rival gang violence vying for control of the drug traffic produced in neighboring Peru and Colombia, as it has in recent years become a transit hub for drug trafficking to markets of the USA and Europe,
From 2018 to 2023, the homicide rate took off, increasing by nearly 800%, from 6 murders per 100,000 residents to 46.
In 2023, authorities tallied over 7,800 homicides and announced seizures of 220 tons of drugs.
Source: News Beast
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