Noboa warned against visiting Cañar; Detainees released for lack of evidence and due process violations

The mayor of the city of Cañar warned the government that President Daniel Noboa should not visit Cañar Province on Tuesday. “I told the president’s advance team and the governor last week that now is not a good time to visit,” Segundo Yugsi said Wednesday. “We have had roadblocks and protests against the government for 14 days and I told them there could be trouble if the president came to Cañar.”

One of several vehicles in the presidential motorcade that was damaged by a rock-throwing mob Tuesday in Cañar Province.

In a news conference, Yugsi displayed a letter and three emails in which he recommended Noboa delay his visit until after the indigenous strike is settled.

Noboa’s motorcade was attacked by hundreds of protesters Tuesday afternoon as it traveled between the football stadium and a wastewater treatment plant in Tambo. Several vehicles, including the one carrying Noboa, sustained damage from rocks and other objects thrown by the crowd.

Yugsi said he didn’t receive a reply to his recommendation. “My emails and phone calls went unanswered, and we see what happened,” he said, adding he isn’t sure if Noboa was aware of his concerns.

Government Minister John Reimberg and Energy Minister Inés Manzano called the attack an “attempted assassination” on Noboa and claimed the rock-throwing crowd was financed by international criminal groups. Manzano said two cars were hit by gunfire, but National Police said Wednesday that all damage to the vehicles was the result of thrown objects.

Although five people were arrested following the attack, a judge in Azogues ordered them released Wednesday, citing a lack of evidence and due process violations. Judge Erika Álvarez agreed with prosecutors that those throwing rocks could be prosecuted but said the evidence presented did not prove that those arrested were the perpetrators.

Further, she said the detainees were not presented their rights at the time of their arrest and they were held incommunicado, unable to contact relatives and attorneys, until the flagrante delicto hearing.

Cuenca attorney Yaku Perez, who represented two of the defendants, claimed that one was selling ice cream at the back of the crowd and that the other was elderly and was “unable to throw a pebble.” Perez claimed police arrested five people “at random” since they were unable to identify individual rock throwers.