Ecuador: the prosecutor who investigated the takeover of the television channel by a group of drug traffickers was murdered

Unknown riddled this Wednesday in Ecuador at Guayas Prosecutor, César Suárez, responsible for investigating the takeover of the Ecuadorian television channel by an armed group of drug traffickers. He has also had numerous cases against drug trafficking and was responsible for the case against Daniel Salcedo, a fugitive from Ecuadorian justice accused of corruption cases and linked to drug trafficking, arrested in the last few hours in Panama.

Suarez was shot to death when he was in a white car on Avenida del Bombero, north of Guayaquil, police sources said.

“Crime happens one day after the arrest of Daniel Salcedo in Panama, involved in hospital corruption cases. According to initial information, Suárez was heading from the judicial police to the Albán Borja court for a hearing,” the Quito newspaper published this afternoon. First fruits.

The media recalled that “Suárez, born in Paján (Manabí), had a decisive role in key corruption cases, such as the investigation into organized crime involving the Salcedo Bonilla brothers.”

Fabiola Gallardo, judge of the Criminal Section of the Provincial Court of Justice of Guayas, confirmed the attack against Suárez in her X account: “The attacks against our judicial colleagues continue. The murder of prosecutor César Suárez cannot go unpunished. The my solidarity with the family and with my fellow prosecutors,” wrote his user @FabiGallardoR, transcribed by the Guayaquil newspaper. The universe.

Primicias noted that “in a recent case, in January 2023, Suárez linked four people in a trial for alleged embezzlement at the Teodoro Maldonado Carbo hospital of the IESS in Guayaquil.”

“He was also in charge of the investigation into the fraud of the funds of the Police Social Security Institute (Isspol). It was precisely the police colonel, Renato González, who reacted to the death of the public prosecutor. “Total rejection, indignation and impotence in the face of cowardly murder of Dr. César Suárez,” González said.

The occupation of the studios of Ecuador’s public television in Guayaquil took place on Tuesday last week and was carried out by more than a dozen drug traffickers from the Los Choneros gang, whose leader, Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, had fled hours before a maximum security prison, at a time when Daniel Noboa’s government had decided to implement harsh policies against groups operating in drug trafficking from prisons.

The episode lasted several hours and at least initially could be seen live on television. Ultimately, security forces managed to subdue the attackers and prevent media workers from suffering physical harm.

This event was part of a series of attacks aimed at weakening Noboa’s management.