Ecuador: Gunmen storm television studio live on air
Masked assailants forcibly entered a live television studio in Ecuador, threatening frightened staff members. The employees were compelled to the floor during the broadcast on the public television channel TC in Guayaquil, after which the live feed was abruptly cut.
Subsequently, the police announced the liberation of all staff members and the arrest of 13 individuals, displaying recovered weapons. Ecuador declared a state of emergency for 60 days following the disappearance of a notorious gangster from his prison cell.
It remains uncertain whether the incident at the Guayaquil TV studio is linked to the escape of Choneros gang leader Adolfo Macías Villamar, known as Fito.
In response to potential instability, Peru ordered the immediate deployment of a police force to its border. The United States condemned the “brazen attacks” in Ecuador, expressing readiness to assist and coordinate closely with President Daniel Noboa and the Ecuadorean government.
Ecuador, a major banana exporter, also exports oil, coffee, cocoa, shrimp, and fish products. The surge in violence within and outside its prisons is associated with clashes between drug cartels, both domestic and foreign, vying for control of cocaine routes to the US and Europe.
During the assault at the TV station, a gunman pointed a pump-action shotgun at a captive’s head, who was also threatened with a revolver.
A woman pleaded, “Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot,” while someone screamed in apparent pain. An employee, sharing details via WhatsApp, stated, “Please, they came in to kill us. God, don’t let this happen. The criminals are on air.”
Police posted videos of the arrested suspects on social media, affirming that they would be “punished for terrorist acts.”
President Noboa declared the existence of an “internal armed conflict” and mobilized the armed forces for “military operations to neutralize” transnational organized crime, terrorist organizations, and belligerent non-state actors, responding to recent jail riots, prison escapes, and other acts of violence attributed to criminal gangs.
His decree listed the Choneros (named after the town of Chone in Manabi Province) as well as 21 other gangs: the Aguilas, AguilasKiller, AK-47, Caballeros Oscuros, ChoneKiller, Covicheros, Cuartel de las Feas, Cubanos, Fatales, Ganster, Kater Piler, Lagartos, Latin Kings, Lobos, Los p.27, Los Tiburones, Mafia 18, Mafia Trebol, Patrones, R7 and Tiguerones.
The order built on the state of emergency declared on Monday, which ordains a nightly curfew in an attempt to curb violence following Fito’s escape.
Security forces have been trying to re-establish order in at least six jails where riots broke out on Monday.
Eight people were killed and three injured in attacks linked to criminal gangs in Guayaquil on Tuesday while two police officers were killed by “armed criminals” in the nearby town of Nobol, police said.
In the city of Riobamba, nearly 40 inmates, including another convicted drug lord, broke out of a prison.
At least seven police officers were also kidnapped and a video circulating on social media shows 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 President Noboa, 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.”
Police have ordered the evacuation of the government compound in Quito over security concerns,
Quito residents told Reuters news agency the city was in chaos since 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 years, the country’s prisons have been plagued by violent feuds between jailed members of rival gangs, often resulting in multiple massacres of inmates.
The Choneros is a powerful prison gang thought to be behind many of the deadly riots and prison fights that have erupted in Ecuador’s jails over recent years.
Fito is thought to have absconded just hours before his planned transfer. Two prison guards have been detained on suspicion of helping him escape.
His escape is also a blow to the government of President Noboa, who was sworn in in November after winning an election tarnished by the assassination of presidential candidate and journalist Fernando Villavicencio.
Villavicencio had reported receiving death threats from Fito just days before he was shot dead while leaving a campaign rally in Quito.