The wave of violence in Ecuador does not stop. The prosecutor tasked with investigating the armed attack on the TC Television studio, which was broadcast live on television in Guayaquil last week, was shot and killed by a group of hitmen. Judge César Suárez, who was in charge of cases related to drug trafficking, terrorism and organized crime, was killed on the afternoon of January 17 in the northern neighborhood of Guayaquil, the nerve center of Ecuador’s war against drug trafficking and one of the most violent in history. country.
Chief Public Prosecutor Diana Salazar stated that she was saddened by the murder of the prosecutor and said that the fight against organized crime organizations would not stop. According to a reconstruction presented by local newspaper Expreso, the judge was the victim of an ambush while driving to court in the northern district of the city of Guayaquil. Suárez was alone because he had not yet been assigned a chaperone. Earlier in the week, he told Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo that he had no bodyguards. An element that probably could not escape the attention of his murderers. According to the first photographs taken at the scene of the attack, the shooters must have approached the judge’s car and fired many shots at the level of the driver’s window.
“Criminals, terrorists, will not slow down our commitment to the Ecuadorian society,” Justice Minister Diana Salazar said in a video posted on social media. “We ask law enforcement agencies to ensure the safety of those performing their duties.”
Suárez is a well-known name in the Ecuadorian judiciary. It was known that the prosecutor had conducted numerous investigations against the main criminal organizations operating in the city, which has become the main center of cocaine smuggling to Europe in recent years. Suárez, who is also responsible for the investigation into the attack on the Turkish TV channel last week, had already received many threats, but a companion had not yet been assigned. He was investigating the instigators of the attack and had interrogated 13 people arrested for the case after special police forces cleared the television station of members of the criminal organisation.
Ecuador was considered one of the safest countries in Latin America. But in just over a decade, the situation has become so corrupt that today Ecuador increasingly resembles a narco state on the verge of “internal armed conflict” as its new president is 35-year-old Daniel Noboa.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
