A prosecutor who looked into femicide and hate crimes was killed on Monday outside the Ecuadorian public prosecutor’s office in Guayaquil, the government agency reported.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, Edgar Escobar was “shot this morning” by gunmen outside the building where he worked in the port city.
The murder occurs as competing gangs have terrorized Guayaquil and its prison system amid a spike in drug-related violence that has left Ecuador reeling.
Colombia and Peru, the two countries that generate the most cocaine worldwide is Ecuador. The crime’s motivation is still a mystery.
The public prosecutor’s office said two suspects were arrested during a police operation on a hill in the city, the country’s commercial hub.
“In the police action a motorbike and the weapon used to shoot the victim were seized,” said the public prosecutor’s office.
In the Amazonian town of Lago Agrio, which is bordered by Colombia, a judge was assassinated last month.
And two months ago, armed men also killed the public prosecutor in the harbor city of Manta.
Escobar’s murder occurs shortly after 34-year-old attorney Maria Belen Bernal vanished from a Quito police academy.
A priest blesses the crime scene of the murder of Ecuadorian prosecutor Edgar Escobar in front of the prosecutor’s office in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Bernal visited her husband, German Caceres, who worked at the school a week ago.
Since providing a statement to detectives probing into potential femicide, he has been on the run. He was fired by the government, which also removed the school’s principal.
Crime has been on the rise in the country of 18 million. In 2021, the murder rate almost doubled from the previous year to 14 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Yanina Villagomez, the prosecutor of Guayas province, where Guayaquil is located, requested that police increase security following Escobar’s murder and increase protection for authorities.
Nearly 400 prisoners have also died in a series of violent prison uprisings since February 2021, while at least 573 women have been slain since 2014 in incidents that are thought to constitute femicide.
According to Geraldine Guerra from the Aldea NGO, which keeps tabs on femicide in the nation, there have been 206 murders of women in 2022 alone.
150 tons of drugs have already been captured this year, breaking the previous high of 210 tons set in 2021.
