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A member of the armed group Oliver Sinisterra, responsible for several attacks against state security forces in Ecuador and Colombia along with the kidnap and murder of several Ecuadoreans, has been arrested.
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The Ecuadorean government "in the framework of the military and police operation captured Wainer Javier Valencia Malava, alias 'Weiner,' member of the Commission of the Residual Armed Group Oliver Sinisterra, who was designated by (the group's leader) alias 'El Guacho' as head of the structure to manage rent from criminal activity."
Weiner was captured on May 25 in the Colombian department of Nariño, the Ecuadorean government said in a statement released Saturday.
The statement makes no mention of the fate of the two Ecuadoreans – Oscar Villacis and Katty Velasco – kidnapped mid-April by the Oliver Sinisterra group.
In late April, the Oliver Sinisterra Front asked Colombia and Ecuador for a ceasefire and humanitarian corridor in exchange for returning the bodies of the three El Comercio staff murdered earlier this year, and for releasing Villacis and Velasco.
Ecuador has yet to publicly response to the request, but it has increased military and police operations in the northern border area.
According to Ecuador's National Communication Secretariat, Weiner is responsible for an attack on a police station in San Lorenzo, on the northern border, and several other attacks in Colombia, including bombing and murders in the area of Candelillas.
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