César Suarez was responsible for investigating the hostage-taking live on the set of public television in Guayaquil. The country is currently under a state of emergency, in a “war” against gangs of drug traffickers.
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The horror continues in Ecuador. The prosecutor in charge of the investigation into the burst of armed men live on the set of an Ecuadorian public television channel on January 9 was assassinated on Wednesday January 17. This tragedy occurs while the country is under a state of emergency, in “war” against drug trafficking gangs.
According to the prosecution, the prosecutor murdered in Guayaquil, the economic capital of the country, was responsible for determining which gang had carried out this assault. In the photos obtained by AFP, we see several bullet holes which passed through the driver’s side side window, although it was apparently armored. “In response to the murder of our colleague César Suarez (…) I will be categorical: organized crime groups, criminals and terrorists will not stop our commitment to Ecuadorian society”said Attorney General Diana Salazar in a video posted on X.
Surreal images
The very spectacular images of the live eruption of heavily armed, hooded men, pinning journalists and employees of the TC channel in Guayaquil to the ground under threat had gone around the world. Amid the gunfire, the broadcast of these surreal images continued live for several minutes, despite the lights on the set going out and the camera freezing. The rapid intervention of the police made it possible to put an end to the hostage-taking without causing any casualties and to arrest thirteen attackers.
This assault on a television set constituted a climax in the chain of violence triggered by the escape a few days earlier of the feared leader of the Choneros gang, Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”. Several mutinies and hostage-taking of guards affected prisons, and in the streets of Guayaquil or the capital Quito, gangs sowed terror with explosions or shots aimed at the police. To restore order, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa decreed the country “in war” against gangs and sent more than 20,000 soldiers to the field. Violence in the country has left at least 19 dead.
