The local public prosecutor said several hypotheses about the crime are being analysed and the possibility of a relationship to the station manager's work has not been ruled out.
(FUNDAMEDIOS/IFEX) – On 11 September 2010, the bodies of Mayra Emilia Aguilar Dueñas, the manager of Milagro City TV, and her husband, Manuel Antonio Maridueña Alvarado, the director of the Municipality of Yaguachi’s Development Department, were found in the Papayal river, in Córdova, in Guayas Province. The couple had been kidnapped on 4 September on the Milagro-Yaguachi road, in an area 30 minutes from Guayaquil, after they had attended a social event.
The autopsies of the bodies revealed the couple had been tortured before they were killed. The public prosecutor told a media outlet that Maridueña had been tied up and blindfolded and that it appears that Aguilar died as a result of being beaten.
Francisco Asan, the creative director for Milagro City TV, told FUNDAMEDIOS that he did not believe that the killings were an act of retaliation against Aguilar related to her work because the station only broadcasts community-related information. Aguilar had worked for the television station for two years.
However, Xavier Manzanillas, the Yaguachi public prosecutor, told FUNDAMEDIOS that several hypotheses about the crime are being analysed and the possibility that it may be related to Aguilar’s work at the television station has not been ruled out.
Manzanillas added that there is “a large amount of information” about the couple’s murder and that he has been requested not to reveal any details by the state’s prosecutor general, Washington Pesántez, because of the delicacy of the case.
Daniel Avecilla, the mayor of Yaguachi and Maridueña’s boss, told the Ecuavisa television network that the murdered man had been working on a campaign to inform citizens about the work done by the municipality. Avecilla previously worked for Ecuavisa as a camera operator and reporter.
After conducting an investigation, the public prosecutor ordered the arrest of Wilson Criollo Ríos and Khaterine Salcedo for allegedly participating in the kidnapping.
The public prosecutor and police are continuing with their respective investigations.
