Schools And Shops Are Closed In Ecuador’s Biggest Cities After A Gang Attack Is Broadcast On Live TV

Guayaquil, Ecuador – Schools and stores were closed, many people stayed at home, and military patrolled the streets of Ecuador’s largest cities Wednesday, a day after armed gang members stormed a television station during a live broadcast, instilling additional terror in a country already plagued by criminal violence.

Following Tuesday’s attack on public television station TC Television in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s most violent city, tensions rose throughout the country. Military men and tanks guarded hospitals, public transportation, newsrooms in the area, and Quito, the capital city.

The hooded invaders who entered TC Television’s headquarters and studio with firearms and explosives unleashed at least 15 minutes of on-air threats, frightening journalists and other personnel. No one was harmed, and police soon swooped in to arrest 13 people.

Even though a presidential contender was slain last year, the blatant daytime display of force broadcast into Ecuadorians’ homes and offices was unprecedented. The motivation for targeting the station was unclear, but the incident elicited an instant response from the authorities.

President Daniel Noboa, who took office in November on a vow to bring peace to the South American country, signed a decree declaring an “internal armed conflict.” The declaration prompted some commentators to call the incident a watershed event for Ecuador.

Schools And Shops Are Closed In Ecuador’s Biggest Cities After A Gang Attack Is Broadcast On Live TV

“We are fighting for national peace; we are fighting against terrorist groups that number over 20,000 people,” Noboa said in an interview with a local radio station Wednesday.

As of Wednesday morning, police stated they had arrested at least 70 persons for alleged terrorist crimes, including the 13 detained at the television station. The armed guys rushed in during TC Television’s mid-afternoon newscast.

On a public television channel, a man with a pistol appeared in the middle of a live broadcast, then another man with a shotgun, and so on. With the show’s title, “After the News”, behind them, station personnel were led onto the set and told to lie down. Screams could be heard, followed by the sound of gunfire.

“We’re on air, so you know you can’t play with the mafia,” one of the assailants says.

Masked individuals were seen aiming firearms at news crews. Somebody said, “Don’t shoot!” After around 15 minutes, the stream was interrupted.

Alina Manrique, TC Television’s chief of news, was instructed to take the floor. With a gun pointed at her head, “I thought about my entire life, about my two children,” she told The Associated Press when the ordeal was over.

“I am still in shock,” Manrique added. “Everything has collapsed…” I know it’s time to leave this country and travel far away.

Shortly after the incident, Noboa issued a decree branding 20 drug-trafficking gangs operating in Ecuador as terrorist organizations and enabling the military to “neutralize” them by international humanitarian law.

Schools And Shops Are Closed In Ecuador’s Biggest Cities After A Gang Attack Is Broadcast On Live TV

A day earlier, the president declared a national emergency, allowing authorities to suspend people’s rights and mobilize the military in places such as prisons.

Noboa’s action came after Adolfo Macías, also known as “Fito,” the head of the Llos Choneros gang, reportedly escaped from prison on Sunday. According to authorities, Los Choneros, one of the Ecuadorian gangs suspected of being responsible for an increase in car bombings, kidnappings, and slayings, has ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Macías’ location was unknown. The government claims at least 30 attacks have occurred since he was discovered missing from his cell in a low-security jail where he was serving a 36-year term for drug trafficking, murder, and organized crime. He was supposed to be transported to a maximum security facility that day.

The commander of the Armed Forces Joint Command told journalists on Tuesday that the recent attacks were the gangs’ response to the government’s operations against them.

“They have unleashed a wave of violence to frighten the population,” Adm. Jaime Vela explained.

According to Noboa, the governments of the United States, Peru, Argentina, Israel, Canada, Colombia, and Russia have all offered to assist Ecuador’s government in combating the gangs. The president also expected an aid package from the United States in the coming days.

Will Freeman, a political analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that while gangs in Ecuador have previously slain presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and detonated vehicle bombs in front of government facilities, Tuesday’s actions represented “a turning point.”

Schools And Shops Are Closed In Ecuador’s Biggest Cities After A Gang Attack Is Broadcast On Live TV

“Depending on how the government responds, it will set the precedent for these kinds of incidents to continue, or it will use this as a catalyst and make some very necessary structural reforms so that the state can start to win its war against crime,” he said.

On Wednesday, the National Police of Ecuador said on X, formerly Twitter, that it had obtained the return of three policemen kidnapped earlier in the week, recovered 17 escaped prisoners, and seized explosives, cartridges, weapons, and vehicles during raids across the nation.

Fabricio Colón Pico, a Los Lobos gang leader, escaped from a prison in Riobamba, Ecuadorian officials announced on Tuesday. Colón Pico was apprehended Friday as part of an abduction probe and has also been accused of attempting to assassinate one of the country’s top prosecutors.

Ecuador, located on South America’s Pacific coast between Peru and Colombia, the world’s two main cocaine producers, has recently emerged as a key drug transit route. Much of the country’s violence stems from drug gangs fighting each other and the government over control of ports and smuggling routes.

SOURCE – (AP)