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Ecuador: at least 15 dead and 21 injured after a mutiny in a prison
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Eva Deschamps / October 4, 2022
At least 15 inmates were killed Monday following a mutiny in one of Ecuador’s largest prisons, where recurring violence between rival gangs has already left many dead, authorities said.
“According to preliminary information, 21 people were injured and 15 died” in the clash between inmates, said a statement from the Ecuadorian Prison Administration (SNAI).
Earlier, the SNAI reported that rescue workers treated five wounded inmates and another was taken to a hospital, without specifying the severity of the injuries.
SNAI added that “tactical units are continuing operations to regain control” of the penitentiary.
According to the same source, “the armed forces are providing support in the outer perimeter” of the prison located.
According to television news footage, detainees could be seen climbing onto roofs as detonations rang out.
Earlier, SNAI official Jorge Flores told the press that “as far as we know, on a preliminary basis, citizen Leandro Norero is among the victims.
Norero, nicknamed “El Patron”, was arrested in May for money laundering in an operation in which $6.4 million, 24 gold bars, firearms and ammunition were seized.
Linked to drug trafficking, the man who was also facing a prison sentence in Peru, would have become one of the leaders among the inmates.
In a statement to a local television channel, the Ecuadorian president Guillermo Lasso presented Monday “a message of condolences and solidarity with the families of those who died today in” in this prison.
Located on the outskirts of the southern city of Latacunga, the prison houses some 4,300 prisoners and is one of the largest in the country. Since February 2021, the prison has experienced seven massacres among prisoners, resulting in more than 400 deaths.
The authorities have so far been unable to curb the violence, which is often perpetrated with knives and marked by beheadings and other acts of barbarism.
According to official estimates, the country’s overcrowded prisons house some 35,000 prisoners, many of them gang members linked to drug trafficking.
In 2021, Ecuador seized a record 210 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine.
Bordered by Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers, Ecuador serves as a departure port for drug shipments, primarily to the United States and Europe. Last year, the country of 17.7 million people had a murder rate of 14 per 100,000, nearly double that of 2020.
In August, the government of President Guillermo Lasso launched a census of inmates in an effort to improve living conditions in the face of prison overcrowding.
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Sylvie Claire / July 21, 2024
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone on Friday, with the former US president claiming to have promised the Ukrainian president to “end the war” between Ukraine and Russia should he return to the White House. “As your next president of the United States, I will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives,” said the Republican presidential candidate.
Donald Trump frequently claims that he would be able to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine very quickly on his return to power, but never provides details of how he would achieve this. Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the phone call, during which he congratulated the billionaire on his official nomination the previous day as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
Donald Trump’s frequent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as his criticism of other Nato countries, is causing concern among Ukraine’s Western allies. In February, he threatened that, if he returned to the White House, he would no longer guarantee the protection of Atlantic Alliance countries against Russia if they did not pay their share, even claiming that he would “encourage” Moscow to attack them. The former American president also used his power over the Republicans to block a $61 billion military aid package for Kiev for months in Congress, which was finally adopted at the end of April.
In his posting on X on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “agreed with President Trump to discuss, in a face-to-face meeting, the steps to be taken towards a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
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Former Ukrainian far-right MP murdered in Lviv: “All leads are being investigated, including Russia”
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Steph Deschamps / July 21, 2024
In a message on Telegram, the Ukrainian National Police said she had succumbed to her injuries in hospital after being the target of an assassination attempt.
“I always say that no place is safe in Ukraine,” lamented Lviv mayor Andriï Sadovy, denouncing a ‘heinous murder’ and offering his condolences to the victim’s relatives.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, the attack took place on Friday evening, at around 7.30pm, when an unidentified individual fired at Irina Farion, seriously wounding her in the head. “All surveillance cameras are being checked, witnesses are being interviewed and several districts (of Lviv) are being examined. All leads are being investigated, including the one leading to Russia”, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X on Saturday.
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko told a briefing in Lviv on Friday evening that the suspected killer could have been lurking around Irina Farion’s home for several days.
According to him, investigators are currently focusing on the possibility of a murder motivated by a “personal grudge” linked to the victim’s activities, but are not ruling out a “commissioned assassination” either.
The 60-year-old language teacher and linguist was a member of parliament for the nationalist Svoboda party between 2012 and 2014.
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Sylvie Claire / July 18, 2024
At least six people died in a shopping mall fire on Wednesday in Zigong, southwest China, and thirty others were rescued, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. “Rescue teams are continuing their search,” the media outlet added.
Images broadcast by the channel and others shared on social networks show thick black smoke rising from a building overlooking a shopping street in this city 1,600 kilometers from the capital Beijing, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
The fire broke out in the early evening in a shopping mall at the foot of a 14-storey building, CCTV reported.
“At 8:20 pm, the fire was extinguished and 17 people were rescued. Others are still trapped, and rescue operations are continuing”, said the station in an initial report on the situation.
Fires and other fatal accidents are frequent in China, due to the sometimes lax application of safety standards. In January, at least 39 people perished in a store fire in central China. According to the authorities, the fire started in the basement of a store when workers “broke the rules” during construction work. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to prevent further tragedies. The same month, a fire in a residential building claimed at least 15 lives.
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