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QUITO, Dec 26, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - An attack using explosives at the construction site of a maximum security prison in southwestern Ecuador killed one person on Wednesday, the government said, calling it a "terrorist act."

"In the early morning of this December 25, 2024, a group of armed men perpetrated a terrorist act by violently entering the construction site of the new Santa Elena prison, where they detonated explosive devices," the presidency said in a statement. 

The statement said one person had been killed, but did not identify them.

President Daniel Noboa's government began the construction of the prison in the rural town of Juntas del Pacifico in June. 

It will have a capacity of 800 prisoners, and is being built at a cost of $52 million.

The new prison will be one of two penitentiaries that the government plans to build as part of its plan to separate the most dangerous inmates from others, and to combat organized crime. 

The presidency condemned the "terrorist attack" which it attributed to "organized crime groups" that "seek to sow terror, weaken the state and halt the government's commitment to restore peace and security."

The construction of the prison has sparked protests from local inhabitants, who reject the project and say that it affects the biodiversity of the area. 

A week ago, the government reversed its plan to build a second prison in the Amazonian town of Archidona, after two weeks of protests that included road closures. 

That prison will now be built in the coastal town of Salinas, also in Santa Elena province. 

Organized crime violence has transformed Ecuador, a country of 17 million, into one of the most violent nations in the world in recent years.