In the midst of a state of emergency and curfew, two vehicles exploded simultaneously in Esmeraldas, one of the three provinces that, together with Guayas and Manabí, are considered to have the greatest violence, linked to drug trafficking, in Ecuador. It happened early Thursday morning, two kilometers away from each other.
The explosions had a high impact and, although they did not cause human losses, they horrified the population, which lives in fear of violence due to the growing presence of hit men, disputing territory to sell the drug.
The Minister of the Interior, Patricio Carrillo, who appeared in Congress on the same day as the explosions to tell legislators that the state of emergency, decreed by the president, Guillermo Lasso, on April 29, had reduced the rate of deaths, reported that five people have been arrested in connection with the detonations.
The commander of the Esmeraldas National Police, Javier Buitrón, announced that there were three explosions in each vehicle, in which two gas tanks were placed to increase the impact and the shock wave. The drivers of the vehicles were kidnapped, handcuffed and abandoned in other places in Esmeraldas, a city with the same name as the province, which borders Colombia.
That city was also moved by the murder, a few hours before the explosion, of the lawyer and former prosecutor Juan Neira.
The government of President Lasso, which celebrates its first year in power on May 24, talks about Ecuador being at war against drug trafficking. The violence in the streets seems out of control, but there have also been five massacres in prisons in these 12 months, with the tragic toll of hundreds of deaths.
As if criminal violence were not enough, a guerrilla organization would be brewing in Ecuador. There is talk of the Guevarist Land and Freedom Movement (MGTL), which would train FARC dissidents, specifically the Colombian drug-terrorist group Segunda Marquetalia.
The Primicias portal had access to the report that will be prosecuted by the authorities, with details of the nascent organization, which would be in training and training activities, since 2020, although its first actions would have taken place in the revolt of October 2019, during the which urban guerrilla tactics could be contemplated.
The MGTL would be led by Ernesto F., and would have recruited young people from Cotopaxi and Chimborazo, in the central Sierra of the country, and from the provinces of Los Ríos, Manabí and El Oro, on the Coast. They would use the “Faith and Politics” training as a front. The Police have arrested, in the last few hours, some of its leaders.
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