QUITO, ECUADOR (AP) – A prosecutor investigating last week’s dramatic attack on the set of a public television channel was shot dead in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s most dangerous city, on Wednesday.
Attorney General Diana Salazar announced that prosecutor Cesar Suarez, who had previously worked on other important investigations, was shot and killed while driving his car.
“Organized crime groups, criminals and terrorists will not stop their work on our society,” she said in a video broadcast on X (formerly Twitter).
Thirteen people believed to be responsible for the attack on TC TV were arrested. The attack was broadcast live and President Daniel Novoa declared Ecuador to be in an “internal armed conflict” amid a spike in murders and other crimes related to drug trafficking.
Mr. Suarez was also in charge of a metastasis case involving an Ecuadorian drug lord who allegedly received preferential treatment from judges, prosecutors, police officers, and senior officials.
Ecuadorian police said they were working to find Suarez’s killer.
Ecuador has been rocked by a series of attacks, including the abduction of several police officers, after a notorious gang leader allegedly escaped from prison over the weekend.
Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, the leader of Los Choneros, an Ecuadorian gang believed to be involved in a spike in car bombings, kidnappings and murders, has gone missing from his cell where he is serving a sentence for drug trafficking. It was discovered that it was.
His disappearance earlier this month prompted the government to declare a state of emergency, including sending the military to prisons, and sparking a wave of at least 30 attacks across South America, including one on a television station in Guayaquil.
