Ecuador newsroom. TWITTER/POLICIA ECUADOR

Terror investigation begins after USB bomb explodes in newsroom

Journalist Lenin Artieda was injured as he opened the envelope in the newsroom containing an explosive device that resembled a USB. The explosive device detonated. The office of Ecuador's attorney general acknowledged on Monday (March 20) that it had started a terrorism investigation into the letters. The news organizations targeted were not identified. However, the letters were distributed to at least five news outlets in Ecuador. While the device injured Artieda, other bombs sent through the mail either did not go off or were never opened. They included "military-type" explosives, according to Ecuador's head of forensic science. The government denounced the attacks, calling freedom of expression "a right that must be respected." Juan Zapata, the interior minister, claimed that the devices were all shipped from the same place. Two were delivered to the capital, Quito, while three were in Guayaquil. The President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, attributed the rise in violence to the struggle among drug trafficking gangs for territory and power. Three explosives were shipped to Guayaquil, Ecuador's second-largest city, where there have been extreme levels of violence, including hanging severed bodies from pedestrian bridges and violent jail riots between rival gangs. KD/Expat Media
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