The Ecuadorian Minister of the Interior, Patricio Carrillo, reported on Wednesday the arrest of a man who “admitted being involved” in an explosion, which left five dead and 17 injured, last weekend in Guayaquil.
“As we said: We are going to find those responsible for the explosion of Cristo del Consuelo. Today, the Police arrested a man with a history of murder and robbery. He admitted being involved in the terrorist attack. Why would a man with this background is he free?” Carrillo wrote on his Twitter account.
He added that the Police also raided and seized drugs, ammunition, a grenade and firearms.
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“This is the type of crime that Ecuador is now facing, a clear message for all: Either we act as an articulated and determined State or the consequences will be very serious,” he warned.
Last Monday, Carrillo reported that ten people, two of them in critical condition, were still hospitalized after the explosion perpetrated on Sunday in the Cristo del Consuelo neighborhood, in the port city of Guayaquil, located in southwestern Ecuador.
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The head of the Interior portfolio indicated that the five corpses had already been handed over to the relatives after the autopsy protocols and stressed “that none of them lost their lives due to the impact of a firearm, (but) all of them as a result of the blast wave, by the power of the elements used for this attack, this terrorist act”.
Likewise, Carrillo pointed out that of the 17 injured, seven have already been discharged, and that they are working with the Prosecutor’s Office to advance the investigations.
powerful explosion
Carrillo reported that homemade explosives made from chemical substances were used in the attack and ruled out the use of grenades or devices for police or military use, as had been rumored on social networks.
“What worries us most is the ability they are having to build these elements in a homemade way. These are amateurs who have learned from science, from chemistry. What is used are homemade elements, among those acetone,” he said then.
The power of the explosive placed on the road next to a house in the Cristo del Consuelo neighborhood generated a hole 1.6 meters in diameter, 36 to 40 centimeters deep and whose blast wave reached between 60 and 70 meters, he explained.
The deflagration killed two women and a man at the site of the incident, while two other people died in hospitals to which they were taken by the assistance services.
The authorities presume that the attack was directed against a subject known by the alias of “Cucaracha”, as well as against another known as “Junior”, who apparently are related to the so-called “Tiguerones” gang, linked to drug micro-trafficking and massacres perpetrated during the last two years in several Ecuadorian prisons.
The Government of Ecuador declared a state of emergency in Guayaquil on Sunday, and President Guillermo Lasso indicated that, in addition, he has ordered that all the necessary public force be used to maintain control and security in the city.
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