César Suárez, the prosecutor in charge of investigating the escape of gunmen on the set of an Ecuadorian public television station on January 9, has been murdered, the Ecuadorian prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday, January 17.

Almost two weeks after the escape of Adolfo Macias, known as “Fito,” the leader of one of the country’s largest drug trafficking gangs, chaos reigns in Ecuador. A state of emergency has been declared and more than 22,400 soldiers are deployed on the country’s streets and prisons to maintain order. The country has become the starting point for cocaine from Peru and Colombia. In 2023, more than 200 tons of drugs were seized in Ecuadorian ports.