Soldiers patrol the streets of Guayaquil, Ecuador, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @RPPNoticias

Quito, November 3 (RHC)-- Ecuador's Interior Minister Juan Zapata has reported that 28 people were detained after the attacks in Guayaquil and Esmeraldas, which left five police officers dead.

President Guillermo Lasso decreed a curfew that began at 9:00 p.m. and activated the "Unified Command Post," which brings together the Armed Forces, the National Police, and the intelligence services.  Its objective will be to investigate the 18 attacks that occurred on Tuesday.

Among these violent acts was the attack on a health center in the Bastion Popular neighborhood in Guayaquil, a city where the police had to carry out a controlled explosion of dynamite that criminals launched into a police station.

Minister Zapata also reported that an attack against a police station in the Prosperina sector left one police officer killed and another wounded.  This happened at 9:38 p.m. when the curfew was already in force.

Over the last 24 hours, the Police and the Armed Forces carried out raids in Guayaquil in which they seized 11 firearms, 227 ammunition, 3 rifles, 13 cell phones, a motorcycle, a vehicle, 3 police uniforms, 60 detonating capsules, and 8 dynamite sticks.

In the province of El Oro, the Police seized 16,416 explosives, 1,200 dynamite sticks, and 150,000 detonating capsules, all of which came from Peru.  In compliance with the emergency state, security forces are also carrying out joint operations in Guayas and Esmeraldas.

This new wave of violence apparently emanates from drug gangs that oppose the transfer of their members who are incarcerated in the coastal penitentiary.