Car Bombs Explode in Ecuador's Capital City

Over the last 24 hours, several car bombs have exploded in commercial areas in the north center of Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, an Andean country where outgoing President Guillermo Lasso has failed to control the violence generated by criminal gangs.

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Police General Pablo Ramirez announced that six people were arrested for their involvement with a car bomb that exploded on Wednesday night.

Some of those apprehended have criminal records related to extortion, robbery, and murder. Three of them had been arrested a fortnight ago for the theft of a truck and for extortive kidnappings. However, they were released on probation.

The detainees were driving a stolen car inside which the police found two gas canisters, a slow fuse, and "apparently dynamite wads."

In the early hours of Thursday, the Police investigated the fire of another vehicle on Veintimilla street and 6 de Diciembre avenue. Additionally, local media reported on a charred truck in front of the Salesian Polytechnic University, near the site where the first vehicle exploded.

General Ramirez mentioned that one of the car bombs was near a building in which the headquarters of the National Service for Attention to Prisoners (SNAI) was located.

Due to this, he attributed the attack to an alleged retaliation by organized crime for a series of transfers of prisoners carried out between different prisons.

On Wednesday, there were riots in the prisons of Latacunga, Cuenca and Azogues, which are controlled by the Wolves criminal gang, among whose leaders is Luis Arboleda, who was previously transferred to La Roca maximum security prison.