Letter bombs had been despatched to at the very least 5 journalists working in TV and radio stations in violence-plagued Ecuador Monday, one in every of which exploded with out inflicting critical harm, Inside Minister Juan Zapata mentioned.
The prosecutor’s workplace mentioned it had opened an investigation into the crime of terrorism, with out stating why the information stations had been particularly focused, or by whom.
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Detalles sobre las diligencias investigativas de @PoliciaEcuador, ante atentados (artefactos explosivos) a medios de comunicación en #GYE.
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— PolicÃa Ecuador (@PoliciaEcuador) March 20, 2023
The inside minister mentioned the envelopes had been despatched from the city of Quimsaloma, within the coastal province of Los Rios. Three had been despatched to Guayaquil within the southwest and two to the capital Quito.
The “system is certainly the identical in all 5 locations,” Zapata advised reporters.
Within the port metropolis of Guayaquil, journalist Lenin Artieda of the Ecuavisa non-public TV station acquired an envelope containing a pen drive which exploded when he inserted it into a pc, his employer mentioned.
Artieda sustained slight accidents to at least one hand and his face, mentioned police official Xavier Chango. Nobody else was harm.
Chango mentioned the USB drive despatched to Artieda might have been loaded with RDX, a military-type explosive.
One other package deal addressed to journalist Carlos Vera was intercepted by the police at a courier firm in Guayaquil and didn’t attain its vacation spot, Zapata mentioned.
Elsewhere in Guayaquil in Ecuador’s southwest, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned a letter bomb was additionally despatched to the places of work of TC Tv.
There’s “a fully clear message to silence journalists,” mentioned the minister.
New escalation
The Teleamazonas chain later mentioned it had additionally acquired a USB stick at its places of work in Quito “with the identical traits” because the one despatched to Ecuavisa.
The Fundamedios NGO which advocates for press freedom, mentioned the three “assaults used the identical modus operandi.”
Envelopes with USB sticks had been addressed to Artieda in addition to to Mauricio Ayora of TC Tv and Milton Perez of Teleamazonas, it mentioned in an announcement.
The envelope addressed to Artieda contained a risk in opposition to the journalist, mentioned Fundamedios.
The one to Teleamazonas, it added, contained a observe that claimed the stick contained data on “Correismo” — a political motion named after former president Rafael Correa.
The letters represented “a brand new escalation in violence in opposition to the press, mentioned Fundamedios, and referred to as for “quick intervention of the State”.
The federal government mentioned in an announcement it “categorically rejects any type of violence perpetrated in opposition to journalists and media shops.”
Any try to “intimidate journalism and freedom of expression are repugnant,” it added.
The CDH human rights watchdog additionally condemned the assaults on media “within the context of rising insecurity in Ecuador.”
Ecuador is sandwiched between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest cocaine producers, and has itself turn out to be a hub for the worldwide drug commerce lately.
Guayaquil is one in every of its most violent cities, with frequent clashes between prison gangs disputing drug trafficking routes.
President Guillermo Lasso has declared conflict on gangs who management the drug commerce from prisons engulfed by excessive violence and riots which have left greater than 400 inmates useless since 2021.
Ecuador has seen its homicide price soar from 14 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 to 25 per 100,000 in 2022.
Final yr, the RTS TV station got here below gunfire assault, and in 2020 a bomb exploded at Teleamazonas.
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