QUITO, Oct 7 (Reuters) – A seventh prisoner was murdered on Saturday morning in an Ecuadorian prison, in this case in a Quito prison, involved in the murder of anti-corruption presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, the prison agency said.
Six prisoners who were murdered the day before in a prison in the province of Guayas, also involved in the shooting death as he left a campaign event in August of the prominent journalist who exposed corruption and organized crime.
For its part, the prosecutor’s office has initiated an investigation into the actions of the Penitentiary Service (SNAI) because there was an order for the prisoners involved to be transferred to another prison for security and this was not carried out.
Villavicencio’s death highlighted the growing violence in the country this campaign season. Police arrested six people that day, while other suspects were later arrested.
The six prisoners murdered in the prison known as Penitenciaria del Litoral, located in Guayaquil and considered one of the most dangerous in the country, were identified by the authorities as Colombian citizens.
The Ecuadorian president, Guillermo Lasso, met this Saturday with his security cabinet to “address the crisis of the prison system” and canceled his trip to Korea, according to what the president and presidency announced on their social networks.
From abroad, the Colombian government condemned the murders and offered its support to Ecuadorian investigators in a statement.
The presidential candidates, businessman Daniel Noboa and leftist politician Luisa González, who will face each other in a runoff on October 15, condemned the death of the prisoners linked to the case while the electoral process continues, marred by the growing violence in the South American country. (Reporting by Aida Pelaéz-Fernández; Additional reporting by Alexandra Valencia)
Source: Ambito
