Ecuador: A car bomb exploded in front of the prison where the leader of Los Choneros is being held

In the early morning of Monday, in front of Regional Prison No. 8, in Guayaquil, a car bomb exploded. Although preliminary information from the National Police indicated that the explosion took place outside the maximum security prison La Roca, journalists specializing in security have confirmed that the incident took place in front of the prison where alias Fito, leader of the mega-band Los Choneros, is being held.

The explosion occurred around 03:00am. According to several witnesses, two people left the vehicle in the area and then fled on two motorcycles, driven by two other subjects. After the escape, the car exploded and, although it did not leave any injuries, material damage was recorded.

The National Police reported, on Monday morning, that its specialized agents are at the site of the explosion to carry out the investigations: “In view of an incident outside CRS La Roca Guayas, due to the explosion of a vehicle our specialized personnel are processing the scene and raising signs, in order to to determine the causes that motivated it,” the institution said on its Twitter account.

Journalist Karol Noroña, who specializes in her coverage of the prison system, wrote on her Twitter that the explosion “was not in La Roca” and specified that the maximum security prison is in the same complex as Regional Prison No. 8 “where she is serving her sentence alias Fito, in Los Choneros” . Almost three hours after the first information issued by the Police, the institution corrected the site of the explosion, confirming what was reported by Noroña.

Last week, alias JR, the second in command of Los Choneros, was granted the remedy of habeas corpus, allowing him to leave prison and be transferred to his home to serve the remainder of his two sentences for murder. Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo rejected the judge's decision on alias JR, and last weekend, the Secretary of State received death threats, through a message written on pamphlets that were released outside a Guayaquil media outlet. The threat said not to try to do anything against alias JR.

The Choneros

Los Choneros, one of the oldest gangs in Ecuador and operating since the 90s, have 12,000 members. Its members are in prisons in the provinces of Cotopaxi, Santo Domingo, Manabí and Guayas.

According to Insight Crime, authorities initially associated Los Choneros as “an armed arm of a Colombian drug cartel, with control over maritime traffic routes through the Pacific to Mexico and the United States.” However, since 2011, when the main heads of the band were arrested, Los Choneros mutated.

This is how Los Choneros have become one of the most violent prison gangs in the country. “This change in dynamics also redirected the international drug trafficking group's interest to microtrafficking, hitting, extortion and smuggling,” explains the specialized security portal.

During the administration of former Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno, the authorities used as a strategy, to regain prison control, the transfer of the main leaders of the gang to other prisons in the country. The action, instead of returning control of the prison system to the State, allowed Los Choneros to expand as a prison gang and to create subgroups loyal to them in prisons.

However, according to Insight Crime, four former substructures of Los Choneros: Los Chone Killers, Los Lobos, Los Pipos and Los Tiguerones, coordinated the attacks against the leaders of Los Choneros. This is because the gang broke up after the murder of alias Rasquiña, their leader.

Recent research associates the Choneros gang with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. Hence, the struggle of this gang is against members of the criminal group Nueva Generación, which responds to the Jalisco cartel Nueva Generación. Although this has been denied by their leaders.

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