1 of 2 soldiers patrol around a prison in Quito after the government declared a “state of internal conflict” to combat criminal groups Photo: Dolores Ochoa/AP Soldiers patrol around a prison in Quito after the government declared a “state of internal conflict” to combat criminal groups Photo: Dolores Ochoa/AP Internal conflict” had been declared to combat criminal groups Photo: Dolores Ochoa/AP
The measure allows the intervention of the army and the national police in the country against criminal groups, and also:
- Identifies 22 criminal groups as terrorist organizations and “belligerent nonstate actors”;
- Orders the armed forces to conduct “neutralization” military operations criminal groups, “respect for human rights”.
2 of 2 President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, meeting with the Council for Public and State Security, on January 9, 2024 Photo: Reproduction/X President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, meeting with the Council for Public and State Security, on January 9 January 2024 Photo: Reproduction/X
There has been a security crisis in the country for two days. Noboa declared a state of emergency on Monday (8). Prison breakout a criminal named Fito, leader of the Los Choneros group. The decree remains in force and imposes a curfew between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
This Tuesday (9) the authorities reported the escape of another criminal: Fabricio Colón Pico, one of the leaders of Los Lobos, was arrested on Friday for the crime of kidnapping and his alleged responsibility for a plot to assassinate the country's attorney general.
- According to the newspaper “El Universo”, eight people died and two were injured in the wave of violence in Guayaquil;
- Seven police officers were kidnapped during the state of emergency. The kidnappings took place in the cities of Machala and Quito and in the province of Los Rios;
- Videos circulating on social media show alleged prison officials being executed and police officers being taken hostage;
- Thiago Allan Freitas, son of a Brazilian, said his father was among those kidnapped: “We are desperate,” he said on a social network. Itamaraty reported that it is monitoring the case;
- In addition to the kidnappings of agents on Monday night, there were others Explosions in the province of Esmeraldas. Several people have started one Explosive device near a police station It is Two vehicles were burned in other places without leaving victims.
- Criminals reportedly raided a university in Guayaquil, causing classes to be suspended.
- In Quito, a vehicle exploded and a device was detonated near a pedestrian bridge. Mayor Pabel Muñoz called on the executive branch to “militarize” strategic facilities in the face of the “unprecedented security crisis.”
- The Ministry of Education has suspended facetoface classes across the country until next Friday (12);
- Given the seriousness of the situation, the Peruvian government announced that it would strengthen security on the border with Ecuador.
TV Invasion and “Internal Armed Conflict”: Understanding the Security Crisis in Ecuador
Attack the live TV channel
A man held a gun to a presenter's neck.
The men held people hostage and shots were fired in the studio, according to the website of another television station, “Ecuavisa”.
Gunmen break into a television studio in Ecuador
According to the newspaper El Universo, an explosive device was planted at the reception of the station and there are indications that more than ten people entered the station and went to the studio of the program El Noticiero, which was broadcast live.
The State of Ecuador is the controlling partner of TC Televisión.
Noboa, 36, is Ecuador's youngest president and came to power promising to decisively attack drug trafficking groups linked to Colombian and Mexican cartels. He was elected in October.
The state of emergency applies throughout the country for 60 days, including in prisons. The measure includes a sixhour curfew between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. local time (from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. in Brasília).
Quito's presidential headquarters and subway stations are militarized.
The declaration of a state of emergency allows the armed forces to intervene in the prison system, where an unspecified number of guards were held on Monday. The relevant authority (SNAI) has not indicated whether they have been released.
“We will not negotiate with terrorists, nor will we rest until we bring peace back to Ecuadorians,” Noboa said in a video posted on his Instagram account. The president described the attack on the prisons as retaliation for his actions to “regain official control” of the prisons.
Noboa announced last week that it would build two maximumsecurity prisons in Pastaza and Santa Elena provinces, in the style of prisons built by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in his war on gangs.
Video shows hostages in the television studio in Ecuador
This Tuesday, indigenous peoples of the Amazon called for peaceful protests to reject this prison project in their biodiverse, oilproducing territory.
Located between Colombia and Peru, the world's largest cocaine producers, Ecuador went from an island of peace to a stronghold in the war on drugs. The year 2023 ended with more than 7,800 homicides and 220 tons of drugs seized, new records in the country of 17 million people.
Since 2021, more than 460 people have died in clashes between inmates. Additionally, between 2018 and 2023, road killings increased by almost 800%, from 6 to 46 per 100,000 residents.