International
Ecuador declares emergency after 5 police gunned down
| By AFP |
Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of exception in two provinces Tuesday, after at least five police officers were killed and prison guards taken hostage in the latest wave of attacks in the deadly gang war consuming the country.
The state of exception and nightly curfew in the coastal provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas will be in place for 45 days, and allows the government to limit freedom of assembly and movement.
Officials said organized crime groups launched at least 13 attacks with explosives and firearms against police and oil installations in response to a transfer of inmates from Guayas 1 prison. The prison authority also reported that “shots were fired inside” the facility.
Located in the southwestern port city of Guayaquil in Guayas province, the prison was one of the main scenes of a series of prison massacres that have left about 400 inmates dead since February 2021.
Interior Minister Juan Zapata told reporters in the Ecuadoran capital of Quito on Tuesday that there were “reactions (of) organized crime” in Guayaquil and in the northwestern oil port of Esmeraldas.
These incidents included car bomb attacks and an explosion at a bus terminal.
In the early morning hours, two police officers died when people with firearms attacked their patrol car in Guayaquil, authorities said.
Three more officers were gunned down later in the day in the port and the nearby city of Duran.
A separate attack on a police station there left two officers injured.
In Esmeraldas — the same city where two headless bodies were found hanging from a pedestrian bridge on Monday — inmates took eight guards hostage, according to the SNAI prison authority.
All were later freed, the prison authority said, without giving details about the guards’ condition.
A video circulating on Twitter appeared to show two guards with explosives tied to their bodies and a man claiming to be an inmate denouncing what he called prison corruption. AFP could not independently verify the video.
“If war is what they want, war is what they’ll get,” said the man, his face obscured, adding: “We will use these guards.”
‘Open war’
The SNAI had earlier announced on Twitter that it was moving about 200 inmates from Guayas 1 — transfers that were necessary due to required maintenance to cell blocks.
But according to the purported hostage video, the move was because of events at Esmeraldas.
“Given the events in Esmeraldas and GYE (Guayaquil), we activated our tactical and investigative units to maintain order and find the perpetrators,” the police said on Twitter.
The education ministry suspended classes Wednesday in Esmeraldas province’s capital of the same name, while President Lasso also canceled a planned trip to the United States.
He said he will lead a central command post in Guayaquil following the wave of violence, and added that police “will intensify their operations.”
“These acts of sabotage and terrorism are… a declaration of open war against the rule of law the government, and against all of you, the citizens,” the president said in an address broadcast on radio and television.
“Today, narco criminals feel uncomfortable and they express their discomfort with violence,” he added.
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 rival drug gangs believed to have ties to Mexican cartels.
Hundreds of inmates have been killed — many beheaded or incinerated — as the fighting spilled into Ecuador’s hugely over-populated prisons.
Civilians have increasingly been caught up in the bloodshed, which has included a spate of car bombs, while the violence has also claimed 61 police lives since last year.
Ecuador has gone from being a drug transit route in recent years to an important distribution center in its own right, with the United States and Europe the main destinations.
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.
In 2021, law enforcement seized a record 210 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine. So far this year’s seizures total 160 tons.
International
Trump says Jimmy Kimmel show suspension due to poor ratings, not politics
U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed any political motive behind ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show, stating that the decision is due to “poor viewership ratings” and not a reaction to Kimmel’s comments about the death of Charlie Kirk.
The suspension of Kimmel’s program was announced yesterday and coincided with the comedian’s remarks regarding Kirk’s death and the reactions of prominent Republican figures in the United States.
However, Trump, on his social media platform Truth Social, emphasized that the cancellations of both Kimmel’s and Stephen Colbert’s shows are due to low ratings and limited audience reach.
“Good news for the United States: Jimmy Kimmel’s show, with terrible ratings, has been canceled! Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to make this decision. Kimmel has no talent, and his ratings are even worse than Colbert’s, if that’s possible. Now only Jimmy and Seth remain, two failures, on the fake news network NBC. Their ratings are also catastrophic,” Trump wrote.
ABC announced on Wednesday that Jimmy Kimmel’s variety show will be taken off the air “indefinitely,” following threats of legal action from the U.S. government after the host made comments on the political repercussions of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
International
Padilla and Durbin seek oversight as deportation of Guatemalan minors sparks legal concerns
Democratic Senators Alex Padilla and Dick Durbin have demanded explanations from President Donald Trump’s administration regarding its plans to deport dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children in U.S. custody, without allowing them the chance to defend their immigration cases.
The lawmakers said on Wednesday that they have requested oversight hearings in the Senate to compel the White House to respond about the planned deportations, which were initially scheduled for August 31 but remain on hold due to a court order.
According to lawyers representing ten children aged 10 to 16 who filed a lawsuit, the administration violated due process by ignoring ongoing immigration cases and disregarding the special protections granted to minors who crossed the border from Mexico alone.
Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), unaccompanied immigrant children in the U.S. generally have the opportunity to appear before an immigration judge before being deported.
Padilla and Durbin’s demand comes after a report by the Government Accountability Project (GAP) alleged that the Trump administration misrepresented the safety of unaccompanied Guatemalan children under its care in order to justify removing them from the country.
The report revealed that at least 30 of the 327 Guatemalan children the administration attempted to deport “show signs” of having been victims of abuse, including death threats, gang violence, human trafficking, or expressed fear of returning to Guatemala.
However, Angie Salazar, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which maintains custody of the children, testified in court under penalty of perjury that these children showed no evidence of abuse or neglect by a parent or guardian.
International
Trump criticizes Putin, calls Ukraine war “one of the deadliest conflicts”
U.S. President Donald Trump expressed his disappointment on Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating that the war in Ukraine would have been easier to resolve due to the personal relationship they share, but has instead become one of the deadliest conflicts.
During a press conference following a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the official Chequers residence, Trump said he has successfully negotiated the end of seven armed conflicts, though he admitted that the war in Ukraine has been particularly challenging.
The president noted that he initially thought the Russia-Ukraine conflict would be “one of the easiest” to negotiate. However, he cautioned that “you never know in war” and often things “happen in the opposite way than expected.”
When asked why he was disappointed, Trump stated that Putin “is killing a lot of people,” adding that “Russian soldiers are being killed in greater numbers than Ukrainians.”
Prime Minister Starmer emphasized that the United Kingdom continues to work alongside the United States to halt “the killing in Ukraine.” He noted that in recent days, Putin has revealed his true intentions by ordering the most devastating attack since the invasion began in 2022, resulting in more civilian casualties and new violations of NATO airspace.
“President Trump and I have discussed how we can strengthen our defenses, maintain support for Ukraine, and increase international pressure to force Putin to accept a lasting peace agreement,” Starmer said.
The joint statement came on the second day of President Trump’s state visit to the United Kingdom, from the Chequers country residence in Aylesbury, about 60 kilometers from London.
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