The Albany Gazette - Two arrested in killing of Ecuadoran prosecutor probing TV attack

The prosecutor was gunned down the day prior in his car on the streets of the port city of Guayaquil, the nerve center of a drug war between the government and powerful criminal groups.

A prosecution source told AFP Cesar Suarez had been in charge of finding the gang responsible for the attack on state-owned TC Television, carried out in Guayaquil by hooded assailants armed with guns and explosives.

"We have apprehended 2 suspects involved in the murder of prosecutor Cesar Suarez... after investigative steps that allowed us to identify the alleged involvement in the criminal act," Police Commander General Cesar Zapata said on social media.

He said "evidence" against them included a rifle, two pistols, a firearm charger and two cars.

Since last week, drug cartels have been waging a bloody campaign of kidnappings and attacks in response to a government crackdown on organized crime, prompting President Daniel Noboa to declare the country in a "state of war."

Once considered a bastion of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has been plunged into crisis after years of expansion by transnational cartels that use its ports to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.

The latest outburst of violence was sparked by the discovery of a prison escape by one of the country's most powerful narco bosses, Jose Adolfo Macias, known by the alias "Fito."

In response, Noboa imposed a state of emergency and nighttime curfew, but the gangs hit back, threatening to execute civilians and security forces and taking hostage dozens of police and prison officials, since released.

On January 9, attackers stormed the TV station, firing gunshots and forcing staff to lie on the ground as a woman could be heard pleading: "Don't shoot, please don't shoot."

Police entered the studio after about 30 minutes of chaos, arresting 13 assailants, many of them teenagers.

The attack, seen live by many, caused widespread panic across Ecuador, with people leaving work early to seek shelter at home.

This was not the first time the gangs have targeted a prosecutor.

In June last year, Leonardo Palacios was mowed down in the town of Duran, near Guayaquil, and in 2022, two prosecutors and a judge were shot dead in other parts of the country.

Anti-graft and anti-cartel presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed in a barrage of submachine-gun fire after a campaign speech just weeks before elections last year, won by Noboa.

(B.Smith--TAG)