Five Ecuador TV stations receive letter bombs

Letter bombs were sent to at least five journalists working in TV and radio stations in violence-plagued Ecuador on Monday, one of which exploded without causing serious injury, Interior Minister Juan Zapata said.

The prosecutor's office said it had opened an investigation into the crime of terrorism, without stating why the news stations were specifically targeted, or by whom.

The interior minister said the envelopes were sent from the town of Quimsaloma, in the coastal province of Los Rios. Three were sent to Guayaquil in the southwest and two to the capital Quito.

The "device is indeed the same in all five places," Zapata told reporters.

In the port city of Guayaquil, journalist Lenin Artieda of the Ecuavisa private TV station received an envelope containing a pen drive which exploded when he inserted it into a computer, his employer said.

Artieda sustained slight injuries to one hand and his face, said police official Xavier Chango. No one else was hurt.

Chango said the USB drive sent to Artieda could have been loaded with RDX, a military-type explosive.

Another package addressed to journalist Carlos Vera was intercepted by the police at a courier company in Guayaquil and did not reach its destination, Zapata said.

Elsewhere in Guayaquil in Ecuador's southwest, the prosecutor's office said a letter bomb was also sent to the offices of TC Television.

There is "an absolutely clear message to silence journalists," said the minister.

The Teleamazonas chain later said it had also received a USB stick at its offices in Quito "with the same characteristics" as the one sent to Ecuavisa.

The Fundamedios NGO which advocates for press freedom, said the three "attacks used the same modus operandi."