Webdesk: Officials and media reported mail bombs targeting two Ecuadorian TV stations. Other media outlets received suspicious envelopes after one bomb exploded without injury.
The Ecuavisa private network reported that a bomb sent to journalist Lenin Artieda exploded in Guayaquil.
A pen drive in an envelope exploded when Artieda entered it into a computer.
Police official Xavier Chango reported light hand and face injuries.
The prosecutor’s office in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s southwest, claimed TC Television also received a letter bomb.
“Bomb crews will carry out a controlled detonation,” the office stated.
Chango suggested Artieda’s USB drive had RDX, “a military-type explosive.”
The government “categorically rejects any form of violence perpetrated against journalists and media outlets.”
“intimidate journalism and freedom of expression are repugnant,” it added.
The Ecuadorian CDH human rights monitor likewise decried media attacks “in the context of growing insecurity in Ecuador.”
Ecuador has become a drug centre due to its location between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest cocaine producers.
Criminal gangs fight for drug routes in Guayaquil, one of its most dangerous cities.
President Guillermo Lasso has declared war on prison gangs that run the drug trade from riot-ridden prisons that have killed over 400 inmates since 2021.
In 2022, Ecuador had 25 murders per 100,000 people, up from 14 in 2021.
In 2020, Teleamazonas was bombed and RTS was shot last year.
