Prison director murdered in Ecuador received threats and reported them to her superior, her brother tells CNN

( Spanish) –Maria Daniela Icaza, the director in charge of the Litoral Penitentiary who died Thursday in an armed attack, did not have security despite having received threats and having reported them to her superior, her brother Victor Andres Cevallos told .

“There were several threats. In images and messages they sent her, they told her where her house was, who her husband was, who her children were. They told her: if you don’t do what we want, you’re going to pay the consequences,” Cevallos told ’s Fernando del Rincón.

On Thursday, Ecuador’s Service for the Attention of Persons Deprived of Liberty confirmed Icaza’s death to . In a statement, it added that another official was injured in the attack.

The Litoral Penitentiary, or the Social Rehabilitation Center for Men No. 1 in Guayaquil, is considered the most dangerous prison in the country, from where organized crime groups have caused several massacres and riots in recent years.

asked the Interior Ministry if the official had police protection or security escorts and if it had a risk report on Icaza, and is awaiting a response.

Víctor Andrés Cevallos told Fernando del Rincón that Icaza informed his superior of the threats he had received and requested additional security.

“They never gave her or her companion a weapon. They didn’t give her anything with which she could defend herself. (…) She wasn’t given the necessary tools to fulfill her duty, which was to work for the State, to work for those people who, supposedly, should be rehabilitated,” she said.

He added that, given the risk to his life, his family asked Icaza to resign from his position as director of the Litoral Penitentiary.

“We asked her to leave that job, but, as we know, Ecuador does not have easy times. (Icaza) had her expenses, she never lived a life of luxury. And, for some reason, Daniela was passionate about working there. (…) She was motivated by justice and bringing something to eat home,” she said.

Victor Andres Cevallos told that the Ecuadorian government has not contacted them and that they fear for their lives.

Brother of murdered director of Litoral Penitentiary denounces that they are “in danger”

“My family is unprotected. No one from the government has contacted us. We are afraid, we have no protection whatsoever. The fear is real… after seeing my sister, I don’t want to see this happen to anyone else, like my brother-in-law, my nephews,” she said.

With information from Ana Maria Cañizares and Fernando del Rincon