Latinnews Daily - 29 January 2018

Ecuador: Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno has declared a 60-say state of emergency in the San Lorenzo and Eloy Alfaro cantons of the north-western province of Esmeraldas. Moreno’s decision came after on 27 January a police station in the eponymous capital of San Lorenzo canton, which lies on the border with Colombia, was targeted by a bomb attack that left 28 people wounded. The local authorities have said that the blast was produced by a car bomb left near the police station by a transnational drug trafficking organisation (DTO). President Moreno has described the incident as a “terrorist attack” targeting the security forces and has said that the declaration of the state of emergency, under which the right of assembly and other civil liberties are suspended, will allow the security forces to track down all those responsible. The interior ministry has announced that 600 additional security forces personnel have been deployed to Esmeraldas province to shore up public security and that Interior Minister César Navas and Attorney General Carlos Baca have travelled to the area to oversee the investigations into the attack. The statement added that the Ecuadorean authorities will also seek assistance from their Colombian counterparts to identify and apprehend all those behind the attack - suggesting that the attack could have been carried out by a Colombian criminal group.

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