Daniel Lozano Guayaquil

Guayaquil

Updated Thursday, January 18, 2024-18:44

  • Tension Violence continues in Ecuador: the prosecutor in charge of the armed assault on the television channel in Guayaquil is murdered

  • Violence The Police and the Army search for 'Fito', the main drug lord in Ecuador, hiding in a prison

The Security Block, made up of the National Police and the Armed Forces, has provided a forceful response to organized crime after the attack against anti-mafia prosecutor César Suárez on Avenida del Bombero in the north of Guayaquil, one more provocation in the midst of the

challenge drug traffickers against the state

.

Thanks to several nighttime raids, police officers arrested the alleged hitman, belonging to the Chone Killers gang, who shot the Public Ministry official, and the driver of the vehicle who ambushed him.

In parallel, the Army redeployed more than 1,000 soldiers to intervene in the famous regional prison of Guayaquil, from where

José Adolfo Macías

, Fito, the leader of

Los Choneros

, escaped , an evasion that directly influenced the decree of state of emergency and subsequent declaration of "internal armed conflict".

The same images were repeated a few days later, with the prisoners lying face down in the central courtyard, with their hands handcuffed and in their underwear, while the soldiers searched their cells.

The commando, made up of four people, intercepted Suárez and shot him with a total of

18 bullets

, with a rifle and a pistol, both confiscated.

They immediately headed to a nearby neighborhood, where they set fire to his vehicle, a large displacement truck.

From there they traveled to their hideouts on a motorcycle and in a taxi, driven by the same driver of the attack, who was wearing a green jacket like those used by traffic officers.

Prosecutor César Suárez had the protection of

a single bodyguard

, despite the countless "high-profile cases," as the Guayaquil Police recognized, but who was not with him on Wednesday because he only planned to hold a telematic hearing.

His family claims that he was

tricked

into attending a meeting that he did not want to detail.

"We recognize his brave work, he was recognized here. When talking about organized crime investigations, the cases with the greatest connotation and danger were carried out by him," said General

Víctor Herrera

, head of the Police in Guayas.

The prosecutor of the National Specialized Investigation Unit against Transnational Organized Crime, a respected professor of Constitutional Law who even ran as an anti-corruption judge, was in charge of the investigation of the armed assault against TC Televisión, which occurred last week, when a commando kamikaze of 13 gang members from the Los Tiguerones gang burst into the television facilities shooting.

A case of terrorism, as it is one of the 22 gangs described as such in the government decree.

But it wasn't the only important one.

The prosecutor himself published on his Facebook account the conviction against eight defendants accused of terrorism, who attacked police units and injured officers in Durán, the municipality adjacent to Guayaquil that is known as the Sinaloa of Ecuador.

The Chone Killers are dominant in Durán.

The last large stash of cocaine, four and a half tons, also landed in his office.

Suárez also carried on his back one of the parallel cases to

Operation Metastasis

, which led by the State Attorney General involved the drug trafficker

Leandro Norero

, known as

El Patrón

, with politicians, judges and journalists.

This is the case of hospital corruption that directly pointed to businessman Daniel Salcedo, arrested on Tuesday in Panama and extradited to Quito hours after the attack.

Seven prosecutors murdered since 2019

The Chone Killers attack has claimed the life of the seventh Ecuadorian prosecutor since 2019. The renowned

Edgar Escobar

was killed outside the Prosecutor's Office in Guayaquil in 2022. And

Leonardo Palacios

, the last one before Suárez, was beaten by several shots in Durán.

The news fell like a bomb among members of the judiciary and among their colleagues, who expressed their condemnation through social networks.

"His legacy will accompany us in the fight. We will continue with more strength and commitment. We must be clear that this atrocious event brings with it a message for the work we are doing through justice," stressed Attorney General

Diana Salazar

, who urged the law enforcement agencies to guarantee the safety of Justice officials and the Judiciary Council to authorize hearings to be held electronically.

Hours later, Salazar used Suárez as an example after learning of the arrest of a prosecutor involved in influence peddling.

"The Prosecutor's Office will not rest in its self-purification process, we will not allow other prosecutors to serve as intermediaries for fugitives from justice," he added.

Prosecutor Salazar showed her enormous irritation, even ordering the opening of an investigation against her, after the information provided on social networks by

José Serrano

, former Minister of the Interior.

The former collaborator of the revolutionary

Rafael Correa

assured that Suárez was following the trail of one of Fito's girlfriends, who is believed to be hiding in Colombia.

"This crime is a perverse message to justice operators willing to fight against organized crime. As never before, today it is urgent that faceless judges and prosecutors be installed in the country," said assembly member Nataly

Morillo

, of the opposition movement Construye.