Gunmen storm studio as gangs strike back
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa ordered military operations against the country’s powerful criminal groups after hooded gunmen stormed a television studio and gangsters threatened to execute security forces and civilians.
Mr Noboa declared the country to be in a state of “internal armed conflict” on Tuesday, just hours after gangsters declared “war” in an escalating security crisis sparked by the prison escape of one of Ecuador’s most powerful criminal bosses.
Long a peaceful haven sandwiched between top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has seen violence explode in recent years as enemy gangs with links to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.
“I have ordered the armed forces to carry out military operations to neutralise these groups,” Mr Noboa wrote on social media.
His comments came shortly after attackers carrying rifles and grenades stormed the studio of TC television in the port city of Guayaquil as a woman was heard amid gunshots pleading: “Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot.” The intruders forced terrified crew on to the ground, and a person could be heard screaming in apparent pain as the studio lights went off, but the live broadcast continued.
“Please, they came in to kill us. God don’t let this happen. The criminals are on air,” a TC employee said in a WhatsApp message.
After about 30 minutes of chaos, officers were seen entering the studio while someone then called out that they “have a wounded companion”.
Earlier on Tuesday, gangsters kidnapped police officers and set off explosives in several cities in response to a 60day state of emergency and night-time curfew declared by Mr Noboa.
Mr Noboa, 36, was elected in October on a pledge to fight rampant drug-related crime and violence in the South American country – once considered a bastion of peace, but now a key stop on the US- and Europe-bound cocaine trade.
He vowed on Monday to bring the fight to the cartels after a powerful gang leader, Jose Adolfo Macias, known as “Fito”, escaped from prison the previous day.
On Tuesday, the gangs hit back.
Authorities reported multiple explosions and said seven police officers had been kidnapped.
A chilling video circulating on social media showed three of the kidnapped officers sitting on the ground with a gun pointed at them as one is forced to read a statement addressed to Mr Noboa.
“You declared war, you will get war,” the clearly terrified officer reads. “You declared a state of emergency. We declare police, civilians and soldiers to be the spoils of war.”
The statement added that anyone found on the street after 11pm “will be executed.”
The presidency and metro stations in Quito were under military guard on Tuesday. Police say an explosive device was thrown near a police station in Esmeraldas on the northwest coast and two vehicles were burned in other areas, with no one killed or injured. In Quito, a car was reportedly blown up and a device exploded near a pedestrian bridge.