Ecuador’s president has ordered that criminal gangs be “neutralised” after days of violence culminated in an attack on a television studio.
Masked assailants forcibly entered the live studio of public television channel TC, compelling staff to the ground.
Subsequently, Police arrested 13 individuals in connection with the assault, which resulted in injuries to two employees.
Since the commencement of a 60-day state of emergency in Ecuador on Monday, a minimum of 10 casualties has been reported.
The emergency declaration was prompted by the sudden disappearance of a notorious gangster from his prison cell. The connection between this incident and the attack on a TV studio in Guayaquil remains unclear. The Choneros gang’s leader, Adolfo Macías Villamar, also known as Fito, vanished from a prison in the same city.
President Noboa stated on Tuesday that the country is now facing an ‘internal armed conflict,’ and he is mobilizing the armed forces for ‘military operations to neutralize’ what he referred to as “transnational organised crime, terrorist organisations and belligerent non-state actors”.
In Peru’s neighboring territory, the government has directed the immediate deployment of a police force to the border, aiming to prevent any spillage of instability from the recent events in Ecuador.
The United States has expressed condemnation for the ‘brazen attacks’ in Ecuador, emphasizing close coordination with President Daniel Noboa and the Ecuadorean government. The US stands prepared to offer assistance.
Ecuador, a major banana exporter globally, also deals in oil, coffee, cocoa, shrimps, and fish products. The recent escalation of violence within and outside Ecuador’s prisons is believed to be linked to clashes between foreign and local drug cartels vying for control over cocaine routes to the US and Europe.
In the attack on the TV station on Tuesday, a masked gunman aimed a pump-action shotgun at one of the individuals, threatening them with a revolver.
A woman could be heard pleading, “Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot,” AFP news agency reports, while a person could be heard screaming in apparent pain.
“Please, they came in to kill us,” a TC employee told AFP in a WhatsApp message. “God don’t let this happen. The criminals are on air.”
One cameraman was shot in the leg, and another’s arm was broken in the attack, the deputy director of news said.
“Through our earpieces the producers told us, ‘Be careful, they are trying to enter, they are stealing, they are mugging us’,” Jorge Rendon told the Reuters news agency.
“The doors in the studio are very thick, almost bullet-proofed, and they were trying to get in because they wanted to gain access to the studio so we would say whatever they wanted us to say,” he said.
Posting video of the suspects arrested on social media – and their weapons – police said the perpetrators would be “punished for terrorist acts”.
State of emergency
President Noboa’s declaration of a state of emergency was a response to a series of prison riots, escapes, and other violent acts attributed by authorities to criminal gangs.
The decree specifically named the Choneros, named after the town of Chone in Manabi Province, along with 21 other gangs.
This order extended the state of emergency announced on Monday, which imposes a nightly curfew to address the escalating violence after Fito’s escape. Security forces are working to restore order in at least six prisons where riots erupted on Monday.
Attacks connected to criminal gangs claimed the lives of eight individuals and injured three in Guayaquil on Tuesday. Meanwhile, two police officers fell victim to ‘armed criminals’ in the nearby town of Nobol, as reported by the police.
In Riobamba, around 40 inmates, including a convicted drug lord, escaped from a prison.
Additionally, at least seven police officers were kidnapped, with a circulating video on social media depicting three of the abducted officers seated on the ground at gunpoint, one of them compelled to read a statement addressed to President Noboa, according to AFP reports.
“You declared war, you will get war,” the officer reads out. “You declared a state of emergency. We declare police, civilians and soldiers to be the spoils of war.”
Due to security concerns, the police have mandated the evacuation of the government compound in Quito.
Residents of Quito reported to Reuters news agency that the city has descended into chaos following the news of the attack at the TV station in Guayaquil.
“There’s too much nervousness in the city,” said Mario Urena. “At work, people are leaving earlier. All the people are leaving, you see a lot of traffic and alarms everywhere. There’s a chaos.”
Other people in the city of Cuenca told AFP of their shock at seeing the TV station seized.
“In Ecuador, we have never seen this kind of thing, where a channel has been practically hijacked and a broadcast starts with shootings, with kidnappings,” said Francisco Rosas. “So what kind of security situation are we in? And if a television station is capable of receiving this type of robbery, this type of insecurity, imagine restaurants or shops.”
In recent times, Ecuador’s prisons have been marred by violent conflicts between incarcerated members of rival gangs, leading to numerous inmate massacres. The Choneros, a formidable prison gang, are believed to be responsible for many of the deadly riots and conflicts that have erupted in Ecuador’s prisons in recent years.
The escape of Fito is believed to have occurred just hours before his scheduled transfer. Two prison guards have been apprehended on suspicion of aiding his escape. Fito’s escape also poses a challenge to President Noboa’s government, which was inaugurated in November after an election marred by the assassination of presidential candidate and journalist Fernando Villavicencio. Villavicencio had reported receiving death threats from Fito just days before he was fatally shot while leaving a campaign rally in Quito.