Ecuador Convulsed Anew by Prosecutor’s Murder
The prosecutor was investigating the January 9th assault on a Guayaquil television station. At the moment of the attack he didn’t have an escort, supposedly because the hearing that day was to take place virtually.
HAVANA TIMES – The January 17th murder of prosecutor Cesar Suarez has shattered the sensation of tense calm in Ecuador, and the efforts of Ecuador’s citizens to recover a feeling of normalcy. Suarez was diligently investigating an armed gang’s attack on a television station in the Ecuadoran city of Guayaquil eight days previously, part of a wave of violent attacks, kidnappings, and prison mutinies that took place last week.
Witnesses reported that some twenty shots hit the vehicle Suarez was traveling in during the early afternoon hours of Wednesday, January 17. Suarez was well-known for having taken on cases of corruption in the hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic. His killing comprises the most violent episode in a series of gang actions that began on January 9th and have extended across a number of zones in the country.
A few days ago, the prosecutor had interrogated 13 detainees suspected of being part of the armed gang that broke into the broadcasting studios of the TC Television channel in Guayaquil and held the workers captive during several hours, all during a live transmission. The police attribute the action to the criminal gang “Los Choneros.”
Despite the sensitive nature of the case – images of which circulated the globe – a magistrate reported earlier that Suarez was not assigned a police guard. The District Attorney’s office recognized that he was unescorted at the moment of the attack, but said it was because the hearing he was attending would be online. According to them, he usually had a police guard.
“They sold him out”
A relative of the victim confirmed to EFE the absence of police escorts for Suarez. The family member spoke in the doorway of the Guayaquil morgue, where the prosecutor’s body was taken after being left lying in a pool of blood in the vehicle for nearly an hour.
“They sold him out,” Suarez’ relative asserted, but didn’t want to give his name for fear of reprisals. He did state that he [Suarez] left home after an apparently unexpected call, asking him to head to a place he didn’t want to reveal.
On his way, he was followed by another car, from which they fired at close range; that car appeared later, reduced to ashes in a different part of the city.
Jose Serrano, former Minister of the Interior under President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), stated on social media that Suarez had asked for information regarding the surroundings of Jose Adolfo Macias, or “Fito”, leader of the Los Choneros gang, who escaped from Guayaquil’s regional prison under circumstances that are still not clear.
Immediately following this, the District attorney’s office announced they were opening an investigation on Serrano, for allegedly revealing confidential information. Serrano responded to this by saying: “An investigation is urgently needed to determine who leaked information requested by Prosecutor Suárez to the criminals who ordered him to be killed.”
A new blow amid an “internal war”
Since last year, there’s been an escalation in the attacks of organized crime against judges, prosecutors, politicians and local authorities in Ecuador. Last August, the country was shocked by the murder of Fernando Villavicencio, at the time a candidate for president. This has all taken place amidst the Ecuadoran government’s declaration of an “internal war” on the criminal gangs. The latest event spotlights the vulnerability of the justice officials working in this context.
The evening before, a prison functionary in the Amazonian province of Sucumbios, on the border with Colombia, was also murdered.
Suarez’ murder took place while Ecuador’s President, Daniel Noboa, was in Miami, where he had gone to see his third child, born hours earlier.
Government and District Attorney’s Office declare their resolve
Given the President’s absence, Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo and Interior Minister Monica Palencia spoke in the name of the government to declare their condolences for the fatal attack against Suarez. They ratified their commitment to the administration of justice in the framework of the “internal war” they’re carrying out against multi-national organized crime.
The “internal war” declaration took place following last week’s escalation of violence, that – in addition to the assault on the television station – saw kidnappings of police officers, killings of at least eight people, explosive devices set off, vehicles burned, and mutinies in seven prisons, involving 200 hostages that have now been freed and the escape of some 90 prisoners.
These events all happened at the moment that Noboa began putting in practice his plan for a “strong hand” to recover control of the prisons. Many of these have been controlled by the same criminal gangs. Since 2020, over 450 prisoners have been killed in a series of prison massacres between members of rival gangs.
In the days following January 9th, the situation had apparently calmed, and Ecuadorans sought to recover a sense of normalcy. This latest murder of the prosecutor has shattered that calm. However, in the words of general prosecutor Diana Salazar, the struggle for justice against organized crime will continue.