The director of a prison in Guayaquil, the largest in Ecuador and the scene of the worst massacres among prisoners, was murdered on Thursday, reported the agency in charge of prisons (SNAI).
“The director in charge of the Guayas No. 1 Male Deprivation of Liberty Center, María Daniela Icaza, died as a victim of an armed attack,” the institution indicated in its press chat on WhatsApp.
The governing entity of the prisons pointed out that in the attack “An SNAI official who accompanied the Director was also injured.” of the prison known as the Litoral Penitentiary.
The official, the second prison authority murdered in 10 days, was attacked on a road that leads to the Daule area, in the north of Guayaquil, according to the SNAI. She died after the attack, when she was being taken to the hospital.
On September 3, Álex Guevara, director of the prison in the Amazonian province of Sucumbíos (northeast and border with Colombia), died in an armed attack which left two other prison officials injured.
Two weeks ago, two Guayaquil prison officers were also murdered while on their way to work.
Guayaquil is one of the most violent Ecuadorian cities due to the attack of drug gangs that drug trafficking routes are disputed.
The also called Penitenciaría del Litoral is the largest and most populated prison in Ecuador. It is one of the five penal centers that make up the Guayaquil penitentiary complex, in which approximately 12,000 prisoners are held.
Of them, more than 6,000 are in the Litoral Penitentiary, which between 2021 and 2023 was the scene of the worst massacres that occurred due to clashes between criminal gangs that disputed internal control, at least until the militarization of these centers ordered at the beginning of year by President Daniel Noboa.
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