A child development center closed its doors two weeks ago on Trinitaria Island, in the south of Guayaquil, after receiving a visit from “vaccinators.”
Those involved say that a young man came up one afternoon and asked to speak to one of the managers.
The woman who appeared thought she was a family man looking for information, but she met a man who told her that they had two hours to get $20,000 if they were not going to launch an explosive against the property located in the Independencia 1 cooperative. .
In the nursery there were more than 50 children from the sector between 1 and 3 years old.
This threat alarmed the teachers who notified the Police. The Anti-Kidnapping and Extortion Unit (Unase) of the Police is already investigating this new case.
It is presumed that the administrator of the nursery, who would be in charge of four other children’s centers in the south of Guayaquil, would be demanding payment for this vaccine.
He receives funds each month from MIES to provide the service free of charge to children from 07:00 to 17:00 Monday through Friday.
Since the threat, the children who attended the nursery would supposedly be in virtual mode; but the families that benefited from the center say that the minors are too young to follow the instructions remotely for the activities that the educators send them.
The residents of the cooperative also told that a week ago they returned when they saw the subject who would have threatened the educators.
“He approached a neighbor and asked him why the daycare was closed, he told him that he had a son and that he was interested in putting his child in. But it was him, we recognized him,” said a resident.
The closed children’s center has capacity for 54 children from Trinitarian Island and had six educators who are waiting to be relocated. They fear losing their jobs if the situation is not resolved soon.
This newspaper requested information from MIES about this alleged extortion to find out if there are more cases and how the situation with the minors affected is being handled, but until the time of publication of this note there was no response. (I)
