MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd November, 2022) Two police officers were killed in nine terrorist attacks in Ecuadorian cities of Guayaquil and Esmeraldas in response to the transfer of prisoners from violent and overcrowded penitentiary institutions, the national police reported on Tuesday.
"As a result of criminal actions, two of our colleagues, Felix Eduardo Contreras Montoya and Rommel Estalyn Chunata Martinez, were killed, and two police officers, who were wounded in another assault on a police unit, are receiving medical assistance. At the moment, three explosions of explosive devices have been recorded in Esmeraldas and six in Guayaquil," the police said on Twitter.
Ecuadorian Interior Minister Juan Zapata said that the terrorist acts were carried out during the implementation of the prison reorganization plan. About 200 people from the country's most brutal Guayaquil prison have already been transferred to other local penitentiaries. Transfers continued throughout Tuesday. According to the minister, the blasts were a reaction to the authorities' move against organized crime.
In the northwestern city of Esmeraldas, inmates protesting the transfer of prisoners took eight prison guards hostage, the newspaper El Comercio reported. Later, the officers were released, the newspaper added.
The unrest in the prison began early on Tuesday morning, the report said.
According to a video circulated on social media, one of the prisoners demanded that the government get rid of corrupt officials and threatened to kill the guards under their control.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations have been concerned about the level of violence in Ecuadorian prisons. Over the past two years, at least 400 people have died in clashes inside the penitentiary system.
