Ecuador’s president declared a state of emergency after at least five police officers were killed, nine car bombs exploded, criminal guards were taken hostage and decapitated bodies were discovered on bridges.
The state of emergency affects two coastal provinces, Guayas and Esmeraldasm, for the next forty-five days and the government will restrict freedom of assembly and movement.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso called the violent incidents a “declaration of open war” and said he was “ready to act harshly. “
Violence in reaction to a transfer of prisoners from violent and overcrowded prisons.
Seven officials were taken hostage by inmates to protest against the transfers of er.
Turf wars are going on between drug trafficking gangs, testing the country’s already overcrowded criminal system, leading to common clashes.
This led to the government arresting them, which then sparked riots.
Six explosions were reported early Tuesday morning in several neighborhoods of the western town of Guayaquil, followed by 3 explosions reported in Esmeraldas.
Two headless bodies were discovered Monday hanging from a pedestrian bridge in the town of Esmeraldas on Ecuador’s northwest coast.
A police report said the two victims were “beheaded. “
In the early hours of Tuesday, two police officers were killed when other people armed with firearms attacked their patrol vehicle in Guayaquil, and then three more police officers were shot dead that same day in the same town and in the nearby town of Durán.
Lasso said the violence is a reaction to the reprisals from drug gangs his government seeks to crack down.
“What happened between last night and today in Guayaquil and Esmeraldas clearly shows the limits that transnational organized crime is in a position to overcome,” he said.
Ecuador’s homicide rate nearly doubled in 2021 to 14 consisting of 100,000 people, and reached 18 consisting of 100,000 people between January and October of this year, according to official data.
The latest wave of carnage comes just months after a fatal bombing killed at least five other people and injured 17 in Guayaquil.
Ecuador struts between Colombia and Peru, two of South America’s largest cocaine-producing countries, and is a strategic transit point for drugs.
Analysts said Ecuadorian gangs are employing terrorist tactics to intimidate the government and worry it is just a narco-state.
In the first 8 months of this year there were 2,785 violent deaths in Ecuador, a 10-year record that already surpassed the total murders of 2021, according to police figures.
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