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Quito (AFP) – At least five envelopes with flash drives loaded with explosives were sent to journalists in Ecuador and one of them was detonated by the device, although without causing serious injuries, Interior Minister Juan Zapata reported.
The minister specified that from the town of Quimsaloma, in the coastal province of Los Ríos, three envelopes were sent to Guayaquil (southwest) and two to Quito.
The “detonating capsule is indeed the same in all five places,” Zapata told the press.
The envelopes with explosives were addressed to journalists Lenin Artieda from ‘Ecuavisa’, Mauricio Ayora from ‘TC Televisión’, Carlos Vera, who hosts programs in various local media, Milton Pérez from ‘Teleamazonas’ and Miguel Rivadeneria from radio ‘EXA’.
The envelope addressed to Vera was intercepted by the police at a courier company in Guayaquil and did not reach its destination, Zapata said.
Guayaquil, one of the main ports for exporting cocaine to Europe, is the epicenter of violent disputes between drug gangs.
There is “an absolutely clear message to silence journalists who have been strong in their way of being or silence the media,” said the minister.
The alert was triggered when the private chain ‘Ecuavisa’ reported that Artieda received an envelope with a flash drive and that when it was inserted into a computer it “exploded”.
The journalist, who works in Guayaquil, has “discomfort in his hand and a very slight affectation on his face,” the national chief of Police Criminalistics, Xavier Chango, told the press.
The police chief commented that the charge used in the device that exploded in Ecuavisa could be “RDX”, “a military type explosive”.
“State of Shock”
Since the five cases have similarities, the Prosecutor’s Office opened a single investigation for the crime of terrorism, punishable by up to 13 years in prison.
The Inter-American Press Association (SIP) urged the authorities to “guarantee the safety” of media workers and “expeditiously investigate” this “attack against press freedom.”
It is a “serious situation that leaves journalists and communication companies in a state of shock,” the IAPA said in a statement.
The NGO Fundamedios, which promotes press freedom in Ecuador, explained that the envelope addressed to Artieda contained a threat against the journalist.
Fundamedios assured that what happened is “worrying, unacceptable”, that it violates freedom of expression and “requires the immediate intervention of the State.”
The government of President Guillermo Lasso rejected the “violent acts perpetrated against journalists and the media” and described as “reprehensible” the attempts to “intimidate” journalism.
Last year, the ‘RTS’ channel was attacked with shots and in 2020 an explosive device exploded at the facilities of the ‘Teleamazonas’ television station.
Ecuador is currently facing a strong wave of violence that has grown alongside drug seizures.
The rate of violent deaths in the country went from 14 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 to 25 per 100,000 in 2022.
