:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/3PDNYVNLL5BG3BQVZ64R2BCZNU.jpg "Ecuador: three police officers kidnapped by suspected terrorists in Los Ríos are released")
The Ecuadorian Police reported this Thursday the release of three police officers, kidnapped by “suspected terrorists” in the province of Los Ríos, at a time when the Ecuador a state of exception in the category of “internal armed conflict”.
The policemen They were released alive on Wednesday night in the Valencia sector, and handed over to their families, the Police said in a statement.
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The policemen They were kidnapped on Tuesday morning while doing their duty, and once the incident occurred, police units were called to locate them, as well as identify those responsible for this crime and place them under the command of the corresponding authorities.
After collecting information with the first investigative actions, and during preventive patrols, five subjects who were on board a taxi They began shooting and a confrontation and chase ensued that left no victims, police said.
Near the San Pablo sector, in the canton (municipality) of Valencia, three vehicles were located that were believed to have been used by the criminals, who managed to flee the scene.
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WE INFORM ||
3 police officers were located on the road in the Valencia sector, #The riverswho were kidnapped a few days ago by terrorist groups in the city of Quevedo.
The uniformed officers were immediately transferred for evaluation.
Under development… pic.twitter.com/zQhbOlIkP1
— Ecuador Police (@PoliciaEcuador) January 11, 2024
Police carried out around ten raids, while investigations continue to locate those responsible for the kidnapping.
“The criminals released the three police officers when they felt pressured by the different operational interventions that the National Police had been carrying out”, noted the institution.
Kidnappings and attacks on police officers, explosions, burning vehicles, an armed attack on a television station and riots at prisons where at least 139 prison staff are held have occurred in an escalation of violence by organized crime since the beginning of this week.
The shock and terror caused in Ecuadorian society by criminal groups comes at a time when the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, seeks to implement his plan to regain control of prisons, many of which are in the hands of these gangs. episodes declared “war” and classified them as “terrorists”.
The president’s intention is to isolate the leaders of these criminal gangs who now control the prisons while two large maximum security prisons are built in the style of penitentiary centers built in Mexico or El Salvador.
450 prisoners have been murdered in Ecuador’s prisons since 2020 in a series of massacres that occurred due to clashes between rival gangs, violence that also took to the streets and made Ecuador one of the most violent countries in the world, with 45. homicides per 100 thousand inhabitants in 2023.
Source: Elcomercio
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