(EFE).- A series of at least four car bombs and riots in prisons where police officers and prison guards are held have raised new alarms this Thursday due to the violent situation in Ecuador a few days before that ended a bloody first round of presidential elections with the Assassination of candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
Within a few hours, between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, four vehicles with explosive devices were searched, which eventually burned without leaving any victims, two of them in Quito and two others in Machala and Pasaje, two towns in the southern province of El Oro, bordering Peru.
Although the police are still investigating the connection between the events in Quito and those in the other two cities, the similarity between them and the temporal context make investigators think about their connection and suspect that a criminal gang could be behind these “terrorist acts” , as they described them.
Both the car bombs and the riots are a reaction by organized crime to the interventions carried out in prisons together with the Bundeswehr to disarm criminal gangs.
For the police, both the car bombs and the riots are a response by organized crime to the interventions it is carrying out in prisons together with the armed forces to disarm the criminal gangs that internally control the country’s prisons.
So far, ten people have been arrested for alleged links to the two cars that exploded in Quito, and none in connection with the two other events in southern Ecuador.
It is the first time that an alleged simultaneous car bomb attack has been recorded in the capital of Ecuador, as was already seen last year in Guayaquil, one of the epicenters of the country’s violent crisis, as the largest Ecuadorian port is located there. , and a major exit door for cocaine trafficked by organized crime.
Both the car explosions and the riots came hours after a massive operation by 2,200 police and military personnel at Latacunga prison, located in Cotopaxi province, about 70 kilometers south of Quito, and believed to be controlled by the criminal gang known as Los Lobos .
That would explain, authorities say, why the Quito vehicles were aimed at buildings associated with the National Service for Comprehensive Care of Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the State Department responsible for controlling and managing Ecuador’s 35 prisons is responsible.
In this operation at Latacunga Prison, similar to other interventions carried out previously, 49 bladed weapons and two bulletproof vests were confiscated, among other prohibited items.
This operation at Latacunga prison seized 49 knives and two bulletproof vests, as well as other prohibited items, similar to other interventions previously carried out in other prisons, with the aim of stopping the series of prison massacres caused by clashes between These gangs have murdered more than 400 prisoners since 2020.
Weeks, weeks ago, an arsenal of weapons of war including rifles, grenade launchers and grenades were found in the hands of prisoners at the Guayaquil prison complex, a group of five prisons that house some 12,300 prisoners.
For the first time, police and soldiers invaded to confiscate weapons from one of the prisons supposedly controlled by Los Lobos, causing riots in other prisons under the control of the same criminal group, such as in the cities of Cuenca, Azogues and Machala.
The biggest riot occurred in Cuenca prison, where prisoners are holding 57 agents, including 50 SNAI prison guards and seven police officers. A total of 600 police and military personnel remained outside the prison without entering since Wednesday.
“We are concerned for the safety of our officers, both police and correctional officers,” Zapata admitted, explaining that the authorities have measures in place to protect the integrity of detainees, although he said he did not for security reasons allowed to disclose reasons for this.
There was also an attempted riot at Quito Virgilio Guerrero Juvenile Detention Center, where youths set fire to the second and third floors of that facility.
A video allegedly taken from inside Cuenca prison went viral on social media, apparently of the detained police and prison warden, where they are urging the government to find a solution that will allow her to be released.
According to local reports, another fifteen guards are being held in Machala prison, but this has not yet been confirmed by the SNAI.
There was also an attempted riot at Quito Virgilio Guerrero Juvenile Detention Center, in which juveniles started a fire on the second and third floors of that facility, forcing firefighters to work hard to bring the blaze under control, with no apparent failure. Victims were registered.
These incidents are part of the growing wave of violence embroiling Ecuador, which has seen the country jump from 5.8 murders per 100,000 people in five years to 25.32 in 2022, the highest in its history History, with recurring murders and massacres linked to organized crime and drug trafficking.
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