The director of a prison in the coastal province of Manabí, in western Ecuador, was shot dead this Sunday (04/21/2024), the day on which a referendum is held to toughen the war against organized crime, reported the penitentiary service (SNAI).
Damián Parralesdirector of Manabí Deprivation of Liberty Center number 4, known as The Rodero, “He was the victim of an attack that unfortunately ended his life,” the organization said in a statement. In Ecuador, prisons are centers of drug operations and theaters of bloody massacres among prisoners that have left more than 460 dead since 2021.
According to local media, Parrales, who had assumed the position of director of the prison five days agowas shot at by alleged hitmen in a cevicheria where he was having lunch in the town of Jipijapa, near Portoviejo.
This is the third murder in five days of an authority in Ecuador, after They will register on Wednesday and Friday the murders of two mayors of municipalities in the south of the country that have illegal mining activities in their territories.
The murder of Parrales broke the tranquility of the voting day, which until then had taken place without major incidents, beyond those caused by the heavy rains that fell in the last hours in different parts of the country, which prevented them from being opened at least three voting centers.
