Armed with pistols, rifles and grenades, hooded men stormed the TC TV channel in the southwestern city of Guayaquil on Tuesday. Ecuador, and suppressed their staff during a live broadcast. In live footage, several masked men with weapons were seen holding down channel employees to the ground, demanding the police to leave the scene immediately.
Watch the live stream here:
Meera: What is known about the escape of one of the most dangerous criminals in Ecuador, nicknamed Fito
Police Ecuador confirmed that “Special units” were used Outside the TV channel TC. “In view of criminal entry into the facilities of a medium at #GYE, our special units have been deployed on site to deal with this emergency,” the police said on their X account.
“Please don't shoot, don't shoot” A woman listens to television footage while others sit on the floor and cover their faces. On Monday, Ecuador's government ordered a 60-day state of emergency to respond to a wave of violence, including kidnapped police officers, prisoner escapes and explosive attacks.
Armed people showed their weapons, Until the lights on the set go off. The live feed continued to broadcast gunshots, screams and cries heard from the camera.
WATCH: Ecuador: Noboa declares internal armed conflict, orders army to neutralize criminal groups
“Please, they have come to kill us,” one of those inside the canal during the attack wrote to an AFP journalist.
The direct intimidation lasted about 30 minutes The entry was monitored by the police.
Later, the police claimed to have put an end to the canal encroachment 13 people were arrested.
“As a result of the intervention of @tctelevision #GYE, our police units have so far been able to arrest several subjects and evidence linked to the crime,” police said on X Network.
Last March, five envelopes containing flash drives loaded with explosives were sent to journalists from various media outlets, one of whom suffered minor injuries when they exploded.
hard days”
Since two days ago Ecuador He lives through nightmares as a result of his escape Adolfo Macias, “Fito”, Head of a prominent criminal gang known as Conneros, From the prison where he was.
In replying On Monday, President Nobowa declared a state of emergency, which remains in effect for 60 days across the country. Including prisons. Includes a six-hour curfew starting at 11:00 pm local time (04:00 GMT).
to avoidproblemFabricio Colón Pico, one of the Los Lobos bosses, was arrested on Friday for kidnapping and claimed responsibility for the plot to kill the attorney general.
Amid the explosion, seven police officers were kidnapped in Machala (southwest), Quito and El Empalme (south). DThey also registered Explosions Against a police station, in front of the house of the President of the National Court, vehicles were set on fire. No casualties or injuries were reported.
125 prison guards and 14 administrative officers are detained in jails in five cities of the country.The Organization for the Administration of Prisons (SNAI) said.
This is the first crisis the government faces Noboa After taking power in November with a promise to crack down on drug gangs linked to Colombian and Mexican cartels.
“These are very difficult days because (…) the important decision is to face these threats with terrorist characteristics,” Roberto Izurieta, the government's communications secretary, said in an interview with the digital channel Visionarias.
Fito was serving a 34-year sentence at Guayaquil Regional Prison Organized crime, drug trafficking and murder. Soneros compete for drug trafficking routes with about twenty other gangs, draining the country of a war.
An “unprecedented” crisis
NoboaChairing the Security Council meeting in Quito, He said the attack on prisons was in response to his moves to take back “official control” of prisons. He warned that he would not negotiate withTerrorists”.
The President said this last week Construction of two maximum security prisons In the provinces of Pastaza (east) and Santa Elena (southwest), its Salvadoran co-founded style Naib Bukhele In his war against gangs.
Sections of indigenous peoples in the Amazon rejected that and called for peaceful protests this Tuesday Project at PastazaIts Biodiversity and Oil Region.
Incidents of violence also took place on the beach Emeralds (Northwest and near the border Colombia), one of the Ecuadorian provinces controlled by the mafias.
In the capital, a car explosion and an artifact explosion near a footbridge were also reported. Its mayor, Pabel Muñoz, asked the administration to “militarize” strategic facilities in the face of an “unprecedented security crisis.”
Located between Colombia and Peru, the world's largest producers of cocaine. Ecuador It went from being an island of peace to a stronghold of the drug war. 2023 More than 7,800 murders and 220 tons of drugs seized, new records in a country of 17 million people.
Since 2021, more than 460 people have died in clashes between prisoners. Additionally, between 2018 and 2023, homicides on the streets will increase by nearly 800%, from 6 to 46 per 100,000 people.