GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador — Ecuador transferred a strong gang chief, accused of threatening a presidential candidate earlier than he was slain, to a most safety jail through a large navy and police operation on Saturday, officers mentioned.
At daybreak, round 4,000 closely armed brokers entered Prison 8 in Guayaquil in southwestern Ecuador, the place the pinnacle of the highly effective Los Choneros felony group, Jose Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito,”has been held since 2011.
Images shared by safety forces confirmed a bearded man in his underwear, along with his arms on his head in some pictures and mendacity on the ground along with his arms tied in others.
Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso introduced on social media website X, previously often called Twitter, that Fito had been transferred to La Roca, a 150-person most safety jail that’s a part of the identical penitentiary advanced the place the gang boss was already being held.
Ecuador has been beneath a state of emergency for the reason that shock assassination Wednesday of journalist-turned-politician Fernando Villavicencio.
The anti-corruption crusader—as much as then second in polls—was gunned down as he left a marketing campaign rally within the capital Quito.
Per week earlier than the 59-year-old was killed, he had mentioned that Fito was threatening him.
On Saturday, Villavicencio’s get together introduced that his operating mate, Andrea Gonzalez, would take his place within the August 20 election.
Gonzalez, 36, is an environmental advocate who has fought for the safety of oceans, forests and mangroves.
‘State crime’
Villavicencio’s widow, Veronica Sarauz, blamed the state for her husband’s loss of life, accusing police of not adequately defending him.
“This is a state crime because he was under the custody of the state through the police,” she mentioned throughout a press convention on Saturday.
She additionally blamed supporters of ex-president Rafael Correa, who was sentenced in 2020 to eight years in jail after Villavicencio had investigated him for corruption.
The day earlier than his assassination, Villavicencio had filed a grievance with the Public Prosecutor’s Office alleging irregularities in oil contracts negotiated throughout Correa’s administration, estimating a loss to the nation of round $9 billion.
Sarauz, who was escorted by police and sporting a bullet-proof vest and helmet, mentioned that she and her three kids had been “also in danger.”
President Lasso has blamed the homicide on organized crime.
Six Colombians have been arrested in suspected reference to the homicide, whereas a seventh was killed in a shootout along with his bodyguards. Authorities haven’t mentioned who employed and paid the hitmen.
Before his homicide, Villavicencio advised a neighborhood program that an “emissary” for Fito had contacted him and advised him to cease speaking in regards to the gang.
“If I continue… mentioning Los Choneros, they are going to break me,” he mentioned.
‘Unjustifiable violence’
Villavicencio had drawn the ire of gangs and drug traffickers along with his fame for talking out towards the cartels.
Since 2018, drug seizures and homicides have elevated alarmingly in Ecuador, blamed extensively on transnational organized crime teams.
Prisons have turn out to be the middle of operations for drug trafficking.
More than 430 inmates have died violently since 2021, dozens of them dismembered and incinerated amid disputes between rival gangs.
Fito, who had been sentenced to 34 years for organized crime, drug trafficking and homicide, had managed at the very least one cellblock within the jail he was faraway from.
The world group has condemned Villavicencio’s homicide, together with the United Nations, United States and European Union.
On Saturday, Pope Francis rejected the violence plaguing Ecuador in a message to the archbishop of Quito, Alfredo Espinoza.
The pope condemned “with all his strength” the “suffering caused by unjustifiable violence.” — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
