As criminal gangs and state security forces engage in fierce battles in Ecuador, a prosecutor responsible for investigating organized crime has been killed. César Suárez was shot dead in his car by hitmen in the port city of Guayaquil, the attorney general’s office said. “The criminals and terrorists will not stop us,” said Attorney General Diana Salazar. “This crime will not go unpunished.”
Among other things, Suárez investigated the alleged gang members who stormed a studio of the state television station TC Televisión last week and took numerous hostages. President Daniel Noboa then issued a decree declaring that Ecuador was in an internal armed conflict and sent the armed forces to fight the gangs. He declared 22 criminal groups to be terrorist organizations and non-state warring parties that must be eliminated.
The security situation in Ecuador had recently deteriorated dramatically. The murder rate of 46.5 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants last year was the highest in the history of the once peaceful Andean nation and one of the highest in Latin America. Multiple gangs with ties to powerful Mexican cartels are fighting for control of drug trafficking routes. Ecuador is a major transit country for cocaine from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia that is smuggled to the United States and Europe.
