The director of Ecuador’s greatest jail was killed in an armed assault on Thursday, the second such killing in underneath two weeks within the Latin American nation, the SNAI jail company mentioned.
Maria Daniela Icaza, director of the notorious Litoral penitentiary within the port metropolis Guayaquil died of accidents sustained “following an armed assault on the highway” resulting in the close by city of Daule, the company mentioned.
She died whereas being taken to hospital, the company mentioned in a WhatsApp message, including that an official from the jail service who was travelling along with her was injured within the incident.
MARCOS PIN/AFP through Getty Photographs
Ecuador’s prisons are among the many most harmful on this planet, and plenty of have been taken over by drug gangs.
The penitentiaries have been underneath army management since January, when President Daniel Noboa declared a state of “inside armed battle” after a brutal wave of violence, sparked by the jailbreak of a robust crime boss.
In January, gunmen stormed and opened fireplace in a TV studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and safety forces. A prosecutor investigating the assault was later shot lifeless.
Icaza’s demise comes 9 days after the pinnacle of a jail within the Amazonian province of Sucumbios, Alex Guevara, was killed, additionally in an armed assault whereas travelling by automobile.
Two different employees who had been with him had been wounded after unknown assailants raked his automobile with gunfire.
And two weeks in the past, two jail officers in Guayaquil had been murdered on their technique to work.
Ecuador registered a report 47 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, up from a charge of six murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018.
As soon as thought of a bastion of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has been plunged into disaster by the fast unfold of transnational cartels that use its ports — primarily Guayaquil — to ship medicine to the USA and Europe.
Noboa’s authorities claims that its offensive towards organized crime has diminished homicides.
Between January and September this 12 months, 4,236 murders had been reported, whereas in the identical interval in 2023, there have been 5,112, in line with the inside ministry.
Noboa mentioned he’s focusing on 22 prison teams, essentially the most highly effective of that are Los Choneros, Los Lobos, and Tiguerones.
In June, the U.S. sanctioned Los Lobos and its chief, Wilmer Geovanny Chavarria Barre, who additionally goes by “Pipo.” U.S. officers have deemed Los Lobos the most important drug trafficking ring in Ecuador and mentioned the gang “contributes considerably to the violence gripping the nation.”Â
