Photo: MARCOS PIN / AFP / Getty Images
An explosion attributed to organized crime in Ecuador left this Sunday (14.14.2022) five people dead and prompted the president, Guillermo Lasso, to declare a state of exception in the coastal city of Guayaquil, one of the most affected by crime linked to drug trafficking.
“I have declared the city of Guayaquil in a state of emergency due to the criminal events that have taken place in the last few hours. The entire public force will be available to reestablish control of the city,” the president said on Twitter
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I have declared the city of Guayaquil in a State of Exception due to the criminal events that have taken place in the last few hours. The entire public force will be available to restore control of the city. We will not allow organized crime to try to run the country.
— Guillermo Lasso (@LassoGuillermo) August 14, 2022
Lasso , who took office a year ago, warned: “we will not allow organized crime to try to run the country”, where drug traffickers leave decapitated bodies in the streets and hanging from bridges in the style of the Mexican cartels.
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The state of emergency will be in force from this Sunday in this port of 2.8 million inhabitants in the southwest of the country and will extend through 30 days, the National Secretary for Public Security and State, Diego Ordóñez, stated at a press conference.
The explosion that occurred early this Sunday in the popular neighborhood Cristo del Consuelo left 5 people dead which They have been identified and have no criminal record, Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo also said at a press conference.
Carrillo said that because of the detonation there is 17 people injured, some with criminal records. “Many of them, if not most, are taking refuge in silence and do not want to contribute to the investigation,” he said. Earlier, the authorities had reported 08 people with injuries.
In April, Lasso testified for 60 days a state of exception in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí and Guayas, whose capital is Guayaquil, due to violence linked to drug trafficking.