GUAYAQUIL: Police and foot soldiers patrolled the streets of two Ecuadorian towns in terror after a series of attacks blamed on organized crime teams waging a deadly war on drugs.
Two inmates died and six were injured in Guayas 1 criminal clashes, the SNAI penal authority reported.
After a wave of mobilizations on Tuesday in which five police officers died, the state of emergency and night curfew came into force in the western provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas.
A civilian who was shot in the head Tuesday died from his wounds the next day, fitness officials said, bringing the death toll in the attacks to eight.
Two police officers were also injured.
Teams armed with firearms and explosives, adding car bombs, scored more than 18 goals on Tuesday in the towns of Guayaquil and Duran in Guayas and the province of Esmeraldas on the border with Colombia.
The targets included police and fuel facilities, a clinic and a bus terminal.
President Guillermo Lasso declared a 4five-day state of emergency in response, with an evening curfew starting at nine p. m. at five o’clock in the morning for any of the provinces and special powers to restrict freedom of movement and assembly.
Classes in some spaces have been suspended.
Yesterday, the streets of Guayaquil – scene of much of the street and criminal violence that has hit Ecuador since last year – were calm and nervous.
Jorge Arguello, the 36-year-old head of an editorial space, told AFP that there is “fear in the streets” and that he himself is afraid to leave his space after seeing motorcycles circulating, related to gangs and hitmen.
Anti-crime operations in the town of 2. 8 million people, capital of the province of Guayas, resulted in 28 arrests early yesterday, according to Interior Minister Juan Zapata.
Weapons, ammunition and explosives seized.
“It’s to faint,” said Elizabeth, 37, a resident of Guayaquil, who declined to give her full call for fear of reprisals.
“The country is astonished by the movements of drug trafficking mafias, who, together with hitmen and not rare criminals, seek to frighten Ecuadorians,” Defense Minister Luis Lara said.
‘Open war’
Ecuador, once a nonviolent neighbor of major cocaine manufacturers Colombia and Peru, has noted a wave of violent crime that the government blames on turf battles between drug gangs suspected of ties to Mexican cartels.
Civilians are caught up in the bloodshed that has claimed the lives of more than 60 police officers since last year. Authorities said Tuesday’s attacks were a reaction to a mass movement of inmates from Guayas 1 gang-controlled prison in Guayaquil.
Angered by this decision, the inmates of a prison in Esmeraldas took 8 guards hostage. All were later released. A day earlier, two headless bodies were discovered from a pedestrian bridge in Esmeraldas.
Ecuador has gone from being a drug transit directorate in recent years to a distribution hub in its own right.
The United States and Europe are the main destinations for Latin Americans.
Ecuador’s homicide rate nearly doubled in 2021 to 14 consisting of 100,000 people, and reached 18 consistent with 100,000 between January and October of this year, according to official data.
Some 400 detainees have died since February last year – many of them beheaded or burned – while the gang war also takes positions in bars, specifically in Guayas 1.
“These acts of sabotage and terrorism are a declaration of open war,” Lasso said of Tuesday’s attacks.
In 2021, law enforcement seized a record 210 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine. So far, this year’s seizures total 160 tons.
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