Three explosive devices went off in the port city of Guayaquil hours after the US embassy in Ecuador issued an alert about the possibility of such attacks.
Police said in a statement on Friday that two explosions occurred in front of commercial premises in the north of the city and another in the center. None was of magnitude and no casualties were reported.
The force did not give further details of the attacks that occurred between Thursday night and Friday morning in that city located 270 kilometers southwest of Quito.
With these explosions, the most violent week of the year in Ecuador is configured, where on Monday a policeman and a woman were murdered inside a church in a town near Guayaquil, on Tuesday Gunmen shot dead nine fishermen and merchants in the city of Esmeraldas, 183 kilometers northwest of the capital, and on Wednesday six prisoners woke up hanged in their cells in a Guayaquil jail.
The day before, meanwhile, three fishermen were shot in the Pacific Ocean and shortly after three prison guards were killed in Guayaquil.
On Thursday morning, the United States embassy had published on its website that it had information that “criminals may be planning to carry out bomb attacks in multiple unknown locations around Guayaquil.”
Police General Alain Luna told the Ecuavisa television network that “these detonations undoubtedly generate shock and discouragement among the public” and added that “we are experiencing a very advanced stage of crime that applies terrorist operations, criminal operations and psychological operations.” .
The police asserted in the statement that they maintain permanent patrols and that they retained a car inside which they analyze traces and evidence.
Guayaquil is one of the most violent cities in the country, where there are daily executions by hitmen, kidnappings, extortion of small and large businesses, as well as robberies and street violence. The authorities attribute the wave of violence to the dispute between criminal gangs over territories and drug distribution routes.
To deal with the situation, the government has ordered the surveillance of combined groups of police and military, but so far the measure has not reported significant changes in the situation.
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