International
Ecuador drug violence: six police wounded in prison riot
| By AFP |
Six police were wounded Thursday in the latest prison riot to hit Ecuador, officials said, as the country is gripped by violence blamed on organized crime groups waging a deadly drug war.
The six were hurt while trying to put down an uprising at the infamous Guayas 1 prison in southwestern port city Guayaquil, police said on Twitter.
A source at the SNAI prison authority who asked not to be named told AFP that the police officers were confronted by inmates with guns and explosives.
Ecuador — once a relatively peaceful neighbor of major cocaine producers Colombia and Peru — has seen a wave of violent crime that authorities blame on turf battles between gangs with ties to Mexican cartels.
Civilians have increasingly been caught up in the bloodshed that has claimed more than 60 police lives since last year.
Hundreds of inmates have died in Ecuador’s overcrowded prisons since February last year — many beheaded or burned as the gang war is waged also behind bars — especially at Guayas 1.
Widespread corruption among guards allows inmates to lay their hands on guns and explosives, among other contraband.
Following attacks Tuesday in which five police officers and a civilian were killed, President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency and nightly curfews in the western provinces of Guayas, of which Guayaquil is the capital, and Esmeraldas.
Groups armed with weapons including car bombs hit more than 18 targets in the two provinces, including police and gas installations, a clinic — where a civilian was critically wounded — and a bus terminal.
Prisoners at a facility in Esmeraldas also took hostage eight guards on Tuesday to protest the inmate transfer, but later freed them. In the same city on Monday, two headless bodies were found hanging from a pedestrian bridge.
Tuesday’s attacks were said to be in response to a mass transfer of inmates from the Guayas 1 prison, which is largely in the control of gangs.
Clashes at the prison on Wednesday left two inmates dead and six wounded.
Ecuador has gone from being a drug transit route in recent years to an important distribution center in its own right.
The United States and Europe are the main destinations of drugs from Latin America.
The murder rate in Ecuador nearly doubled in 2021 to 14 per 100,000 inhabitants, and reached 18 per 100,000 between January and October this year, according to official data.
In 2021, law enforcement seized a record 210 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine. So far this year’s seizures total 160 tons.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction