Two men on a motorcycle fired at the headquarters of a television channel and left pamphlets with threats against a newspaper in Guayaquil, the focus of unprecedented violence in Ecuador, where this week several incidents were recorded in prisons that left almost thirty dead.
“The attack” was directed against the RTS channel, the prosecution said in a tweet.
#NOW | #Guayas: #AttorneyEc opens – ex officio – an investigation after the attack on @RTSEcuador in #Guayaquil. Unidentified persons fired at the doors of the media outlet, leaving –in addition– intimidating pamphlets against @DiarioExtraEc. #Prosecutor’s Office Against Crime pic.twitter.com/jfO9XTe4iU
– Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office (@FiscaliaEcuador) October 7, 2022
“Unidentified persons shot at the doors of the media outlet, also leaving intimidating pamphlets against DiarioExtraEc,” the agency added.
In one of the pamphlets, the crossed-out front page of the newspaper with the label “prohibited” can be seen, according to images shared by the prosecution.
The text warns to the newspaper vendors “The sale of newspaper La Extra is prohibited” (sic), one of the newspapers with the largest circulation in the country, and a death threat against its director and those who sell the newspaper.
The middle He assured in a statement that he will “continue reporting the facts related to the prison crisis and insecurity plaguing the country,” reported the AFP news agency.
In its morning news, RTS reported that two men on a motorcycle stopped in front of the channel’s gate during the early hours of the morning and fired three times.
“Shutting up or silencing us will not achieve itwe are a channel made up of a serious journalistic team,” said presenter Luisa Delgadillo after narrating what happened and specifying that there were no victims.
The government rejected in a statement the “acts of violence or intimidation” against journalists and the media and expressed solidarity with RTS and Extra.
For its part, the NGO Fundamedioswhich promotes freedom of the press, expressed “concern about the escalation of violence in the country.”
“We urge the authorities with responsibilities in the protection of journalists to immediately coordinate the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, to adopt effective actions that guarantee freedom of expression and the press,” the organization added.
?#RELEASE | Unknown persons fired on the premises of @RTSEcuador and left pamphlets threatening @DiarioExtraEc and to its distributors. #Fundamedios considers this inadmissible, it should alarm us as a society and motivate immediate action.
▶️https://t.co/yJkaznPSkR pic.twitter.com/zBBU8XMVu4
— FUNDAMEDIOS (@FUNDAMEDIOS) October 7, 2022
Ecuador faces a unprecedented violence linked to drug trafficking, who dispute the distribution routes of the drug. The clashes are concentrated in prisons, where some 400 inmates have died since 2021.
The most recent clashes occurred this week between Monday and Wednesday, and left 29 prisoners dead.
Between January and October, the homicide rate reached 18.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, higher than that of 2021, which stood at 14.
