Three prison officials have been shot at in the last week in Guayaquil; one died with 8 shots

In less than seven days, three officials of the National Service for Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI) have been victims of an attack by hit men when they were leaving the Litoral Penitentiary after their work day.

One of the workers died, the other two were unharmed and a man (collateral victim) was shot in the middle of the last attack, which occurred this Wednesday, January 12.

All this occurs in the midst of a restructuring that is being carried out in the institution that two days ago announced that more than 700 inmates who have served their sentence or have access to prison benefits have been released. This as a measure to reduce overcrowding in detention centers nationwide, where more than 350 murders were recorded last year due to fighting between gangs.

And it is precisely these gangs that the Police presume could be behind the attacks that officials have received.

On January 5, 2022, the coordinator of hearings of CPL Guayas No. 2 (Penitentiary), Cristian Llerena Nicola, was murdered hit-man style on the road to Daule.

Llerena was 28 years old and was shot while riding a motorcycle with his father, who had just picked him up from jail, at 5:00 p.m.

He was a passenger when he was violently attacked. They shot him in the back. There were eight shots they gave him.

Llerena’s killers were also on a motorcycle and caught up with the victim’s father when he stopped at a traffic light in the California Business Park (PECA) sector. A man was arrested.

A week later, another bullet attack occurred at the same point on the road to Daule. On the afternoon of this Wednesday the 12th, two cars were shot at on the overpass located a few meters from (PECA).

Lorena Calderón, the director of the women’s prison, was in one of the vehicles, accompanied by two men, and in the other car was a SNAI official who has not been identified.

Both cars had bullet holes and although the officials were unharmed, a man who is not related to the SNAI was wounded with two shots to the legs.

This is Pablo Quintana Aguirre, a freelance lawyer, who clarifies that he is not an official or custodian and who says that he is speaking to the media because he insists that he does not have business with anyone nor has he made agreements of any kind. “I don’t owe anyone anything,” he says.

Quintana is a friend of the prison director and says that she called him to do her the favor of picking her up at the Penitentiary.

He says that he did not know that she had received a threat days before and that she was accompanied by a guard, who would be a plainclothes police officer who was armed and who also got into Pablo Quintana’s car.

This man explains that he was driving the gray car that sustained at least five bullet wounds and that another SNAI official that he does not know was in a red Picanto vehicle.

Apparently the director of the prison was going to leave in the red car from the penitentiary, but they had been warned that they could be waiting for them outside, so they decided that it was safer for her to leave in another car and at that moment they called Quintana, who He claims he didn’t know anything.

The lawyer was driving through the California Park overpass when he heard the guard, who sat next to him, yell “careful, careful” and drew his gun.

Quintana maintains that he instinctively threw the seat back and that he tried to turn face down when he heard the volley of shots.

One of the bullets went through his left shin. The other entered through her right buttock and exited through her thigh. Fortunately, no projectile hit the bone or an artery, explained Pablo Quintana this Thursday, who is already recovering at home.

With his legs injured, Quintana quickly drove to a shopping center a short distance away and entered a coffee shop to try to get to safety and wait for the police. The ambulance and special units arrived there.

The official who was in the red car was also uninjured.

The two cars shot up were transferred to the Criminalistics laboratory for the skills. (I)