Five Ecuador TV stations receive letter bombs, one explodes

QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Letter bombs were sent to at least five journalists working in TV and radio stations in violence-plagued Ecuador 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 militarytype explosive.