Neighbors are concerned about the events, they are also afraid to file a complaint because they are threatened. They investigate whether artifacts would be related to posters.
Only in the Pascuales district, specifically in blocks 7, 9 and 10 of Bastión Popular, northwest of Guayaquil, since 2021 the discovery or detonation of explosive devices has been reported on nine occasions.
These are lemon-type grenades or emulgel capsules (handmade), which are used by the gangs that operate in that area to threaten their enemies.
What is worrying about this situation is that the first devices never detonated, but in the last two cases explosions were reported, fortunately without injuries.
“We have determined that (they are) criminal micro-trafficking groups that launch warnings or advertisements to mark territory for the sale of narcotics,” said Colonel Fabricio Silva, from the Pascuales district.
The police officer also detailed that the most recent detonation recorded last Tuesday night occurred minutes after a man was threatened by a gang.
According to the residents of Block 9 of Bastion, three detonations were heard in that sector. It is that a man in the area had been taken out to the street by a group of unknown men and they fired the three shots with the gun stuck to his ear, while they warned him “not to be a toad.”
No one has filed complaints about the incident, said Colonel Silva, who maintains that the gangs that would operate in that sector are the same that are fighting for control in prisons such as the Litoral Penitentiary.
That same day, in block 7 of Flor de Bastión, in Nueva Prosperina, northwest of the city, another grenade was found and it was necessary for the Anti-Explosives Unit to intervene.
A week ago, on December 29, another case was registered in block 10 of the Popular Bastion. That time, people on a motorcycle threw two handmade explosives at a house that had already been attacked three months ago with a grenade: one of the two explosives detonated on the roof of the house; the other was removed by expert agents who took the equipment away.
The Police are investigating these cases, but the explosions sector is at the top of a hill, so the agents explain that from the steps the residents – some, members of the groups – can see which car goes up to the sector and thus notice when the police approach.
Colonel Silva believes that those who live in the conflictive blocks of the Popular Bastion have already become accustomed to this situation. He said that, unfortunately, they are normalizing this type of violence and that is why it is difficult to find human sources, because they are threatened.
According to figures from the National Police, some 20 controlled explosions have been carried out since January 2021 in Zone 8 (Guayaquil, Durán and Samborondón).
Anti-narcotics is already conducting an investigation to determine which gangs operate and dismantle the organizations that are bombing that territory.
General Fausto Buenaño, Zone 8 Police Commander, indicated last year that these explosive devices would enter through the southern border, which is why he stressed the importance of controlling clandestine crossings, which are used by gangs.
The agents are also investigating whether these explosives are related to international cartels for the war to control drug trafficking in Guayaquil, since Intelligence presumes that, since the first massacres took place in the prisons last February, in which 80 inmates died, the cartels Mexicans armed local gangs so they can defend themselves.
The Choneros work for the Sinaloa cartel, while the Tiguerones and Lobos work for Jalisco, Nueva Generación.
But from Mexico, not only the Ecuadorian gangs would have been supplied with grenades, but also with state-of-the-art weapons, such as rifles for military use found months ago in Los Vergeles, north of Guayaquil, during the seizure of almost ten tons of cocaine.
In other sectors of the Buenos Aires city, meanwhile, violent events do not stop and every day murders, robberies and other events that concern citizens are reported.
In the Guasmo sector, south of Guayaquil, during the first week of 2022 several crimes were reported, in one of those violent events the victim was a minor. Another child was injured during that attack on the previous Thursday. (I)
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
