MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuadorean prosecutor handling last week's TV station seizure shot dead

Suárez has been involved in several high-profile cases related to corruption and organized crime

Ecuadorean Prosecutor César Suárez who was handling the investigation into the Jan. 9 seizure of a Public TV station by a drug-trafficking gang, was shot dead Wednesday in Guayaquil, adding to the South American country's wave of crime and violence. Suárez took over 20 gunshots, it was reported. National Police “specialized units” have been assigned to the case.

Suárez was driving his car to a hearing when he was intercepted by another vehicle from which a hitman started shooting. According to El Universo, the killers set their car on fire after committing the murder.

The country is reeling from an unprecedented wave of violence that spiked two weeks ago when drug lord Adolfo Macias, alias Fito, head of the Los Choneros criminal group associated with Mexican cartels, escaped from prison.

Suárez has been involved in several high-profile cases related to corruption and organized crime besides the attack against the broadcasting station that was considered a narco coup against the government of President Daniel Noboa, who declared a state of “internal armed conflict” in the country.

The murder comes just a day after the arrest in Panama of criminal Daniel Salcedo, who was indicted in several corruption cases in which Suárez was involved. In 2021, Salcedo was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his involvement in the illegal sale of medical supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic. In December 2022, however, he was released on a judge's order.

Salcedo is also one of the 39 defendants in the anti-corruption operation Metástasis, which investigates a network of drug trafficking infiltrations in the Ecuadorian state and involves judges, police, and other high-ranking officials. One of the judges in the case, Emerson Curipallo, was arrested last month on charges of allegedly receiving US$ 250,000 from drug trafficker Leandro Norero.

Since Jan. 9, the Armed Forces have been carrying out operations nationwide, arresting 1,753 people by Jan. 16 and freeing 201 hostages from criminal groups. However, alias Fito and Fabricio Colon Pico, two of the country's most wanted criminals who escaped from prison last week, are yet to be recaptured.