Ecuador announces state of emergency after mayor shot to death

[Judi Lynn]

The country is also contending with violence within its prison system as deadly clashes erupt between gangs.



The coffin of Agustín Intriago, mayor of Manta, is guarded by firefighters on July 24 [Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo]

Published On 25 Jul 2023
25 Jul 2023

Ecuador has announced a state of emergency in three provinces after a shooting left two people dead, including the mayor of a major city. In announcing the measure on Monday, Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso paid tribute to the two victims, Agustín Intriago and Ariana Estefanía Chancay.

“No mother should have to bury her children and no child should grow up without their parent, much less because of a criminal attack,” Lasso wrote on Twitter. “Today Ecuador is in mourning.”

Lasso added that a suspect in the shooting has been taken into custody while investigations were under way.

The shooting took place on Sunday in the port city of Manta, where Intriago, 38, had recently begun a second term as mayor in May. He had been reelected in February.

More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/25/ecuador-announces-state-of-emergency-after-mayor-shot-to-death

[Judi Lynn]

1. Over 90 prison guards are being held hostage by inmates across five different prisons in Ecuador

By Ana María Cañizares, Sofia Cox, and Stefano Pozzebon, CNN
Updated 8:18 PM EDT, Mon July 24, 2023

Ecuador’s government has declared a state of emergency in two provinces after its security crisis escalated over the weekend with the killing of a mayor and uprisings in several penitentiaries across the country.

More than 90 prison security agents are currently being held by inmates across five different prisons in Ecuador, according to the country’s penitentiary service SNAI.

Hundreds of inmates have been killed in recent years in Ecuador as members of competing criminal organizations square off with each other inside the prisons, which are often self-ruled by the criminal organizations. In recent days, prison clashes have left at least six dead.

This comes after the mayor of Ecuador’s sixth-largest city Manta, Agustin Intriago, was killed in a targeted attack on Sunday, according to a statement from Interior Minister Juan Zapata.

More:
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/24/americas/ecuador-security-agents-prisons-intl-latam/index.html

[Eugene]

2. Toll from Ecuador jail riots hits 31 as army wrests back control

Toll from Ecuador jail riots hits 31 as army wrests back control (Al Jazeera)

The government, via its communications secretariat Segcom, said “total control” has now been regained at Guayas 1, which houses more than 5,600 inmates.

It said some 120 prison officers had also been freed after being held hostage in six jails around the country. There was no official information about hunger strikes allegedly taking place at some prisons.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/25/ecuador-declares-state-of-emergency-in-prisons-amid-fatal-attacks

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Ecuador declares prison emergency as inmates killed and 100 guards taken hostage (The Guardian)

Ecuador’s president, Guillermo Lasso, has declared a 60-day state of emergency throughout the country’s prisons and authorized the armed forces to retake control of jails, following violence in the country’s most notorious prison that left 18 dead and a string of protests in which inmates took nearly 100 guards hostage.

The measure – the second state of emergency that Lasso has ordered in less than 24 hours – will be in effect for 60 days and orders the immediate mobilization of the military and police in an effort to regain control of the prisons.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/25/ecuador-prison-state-of-emergency-hostages-killings

https://archive.is/Ov44W