In the guise of USB: Bomb explodes in the editorial office of Ecuadorian journalists, there are victims

Letters with a bomb explosion were sent to at least five journalists working in television and radio stations in Ecuador. This was announced by Interior Minister Juan Zapata on March 20, CBS News reports.

The prosecutor’s office said it had launched an investigation into the terrorism crime, without specifying why or by whom these news stations were targeted. The Interior Minister said the envelopes were sent from the city of Quimsaloma in the Los Rios coastal region. Three were sent to Guayaquil, in the southwestern part of the country, and two to the capital, Quito.

“The device is really the same in all five places. There is a very clear message to silence journalists,” Zapata told reporters.

In the port city of Guayaquil, journalist Lenin Artieda of the private television channel Ecuavisa received an envelope containing a flash drive that exploded when he plugged it into a computer, his employer said. Artieda suffered minor injuries to one arm and face. According to a preliminary version of the investigation, the USB drive sent to Artieda could be loaded with RDX, a military-grade explosive. The envelope sent to Artieda contained a threat to the journalist. There was a note claiming the file contained information about Correismo, a political movement named after former President Rafael Correa.

Another package sent to journalist Carlos Vera was picked up by the police at a courier company in Guayaquil and never reached its destination. Prosecutors in the city of Guayaquil in southwest Ecuador said that a letter containing a bomb was also sent to Turkish TV. The Teleamazonas network later said it received a USB drive “with the same specifications” as the one sent from their Quito office to Ecuavisa.

Fundamedios, a press freedom NGO, said all three attacks “used the same method”. In the statement, it was stated that the USB memory envelopes were sent to TC Television Mauricio Ayora and Milton Perez from Teleamazonas, as well as Artieda.

What’s going on in Ecuador?

Ecuador lies between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest producers of cocaine, and has become the center of the world drug trade in recent years. Ecuadorian law enforcement seized a record 210 tons of drugs in 2021, mostly cocaine.

The city of Guayaquil is one of the most violent cities in the country, with frequent clashes between criminal gangs who object to drug trafficking ways.

President Guillermo Lasso has declared war on the gangs that control the drug trade in besieged prisons with extreme violence and unrest that have killed more than 400 inmates since 2021. In November, Lasso declared a state of emergency in two provinces after at least five police officers were killed and guards taken hostage.

The homicide rate in Ecuador jumped from 14 per 100,000 in 2021 to 25 per 100,000 in 2022.

Last year the RTS TV channel came under fire, and in 2020 the bomb went off on Teleamazonas.

With the rise of organized crime, some local gangs such as Lobos and Los Tiguerones turned into microcartels. Both gangs are affiliated with the Mexican Jalisco Next Generation cartel and are responsible for deadly prison riots. The Justice Department considers the Jalisco cartel “one of the five most dangerous international criminal organizations in the world.” Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera, “El Mencho”, is one of the most wanted by Mexican and US authorities. However, it is not yet known whether the cartel is linked to the bombings against journalists.

Recall that on March 18, a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in Ecuador. According to the seismological center, tremors occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers. The focus of the disaster is at a depth of about 80 km.

As of March 19, it was known that at least 15 people were killed and 400 injured in the earthquake in Ecuador. Öge also affected the neighboring country Peru and lost his life as a result of a 14-year-old boy’s head blow. city ​​of Tumbes