GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — It was a day like any other at the TC television studio in Ecuador as the afternoon newscast was on when masked gunmen stormed in and unleashed threats and fear for at least 15 minutes — all broadcast live.
First, in the middle of the public television broadcast, a man with a pistol appeared, followed by a second man with a shotgun, then a third and another. Titled “After the News,” the program's employees were brought to the set and told to lie down. Screams were heard, followed by shots.
“We're on the air, so you know you can't play with the mafia,” one of the attackers is heard saying.
Masked men could be seen pointing guns at news workers. Someone said, “Don’t shoot!” After about 15 minutes, the broadcast stopped.
This screenshot from live video from broadcaster TC Television shows a masked, armed person standing over journalists during a live broadcast in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, January 9, 2024. (TC Television Network via AP)
The unprecedented attack on the television station in Guayaquil, a port city in Ecuador, came hours after a series of other attacks and kidnappings of police officers. It also followed the apparent escape from prison of two leaders of the country's most powerful gangs.
No one was killed in Tuesday's attack and authorities say the 13 attackers have been arrested and face terrorism charges. President Daniel Noboa, who came to power in November promising to bring peace to the South American country, issued a decree saying the violence-plagued country had entered what some believe was an “internal armed conflict.” Analysts represent a turning point in Ecuador.
Late on Tuesday, Noboa met with his security cabinet and afterward the head of the armed forces' Joint Command said the attacks were a response by the gangs to government actions against them.
“They unleashed a wave of violence to instill fear in the population,” Admiral Jaime Vela told reporters, describing the attacks as “unprecedented” in Ecuador’s history.
The South American country has been rocked by attacks since Monday evening, but the attack on the newscast was seen in real time in thousands of homes across the country.
“This is a turning point,” said Will Freeman, a political analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations, adding that while presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated and car bombs were detonated outside government buildings, Tuesday's events marked a new high point in violence.
“Depending on how the government responds, it will set a precedent for such incidents to continue or it will use this as a catalyst and implement some very necessary structural reforms so that the state can begin to win its war on crime,” Freeman said .
Soldiers patrol in front of the Government Palace during the state of emergency in Quito, Ecuador, January 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Police evacuate station personnel in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, January 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
Alina Manrique, TC Television's news director, was instructed to speak out.
“They pointed the gun at my head,” she told The Associated Press. “I’ve thought about my two children my whole life.”
Manrique said some of the attackers fled the studio and tried to hide when they realized they were surrounded by police.
“I’m still in shock,” she said. “Everything collapsed. … All I know is that it’s time to leave this country and go very far away.”
Employees sit on a street after being evacuated from the TC television station after a group of armed men broke into their set during a live broadcast, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
Police officers broke into the television station and overpowered the attackers, who could face up to 13 years in prison if convicted of terrorism.
On Monday, a day after a notorious gang leader's apparent escape from prison, President Noboa declared a national state of emergency, a measure that allows authorities to suspend people's rights and mobilize the military in places such as prisons .
On Tuesday, shortly after the gunmen stormed the television station, Noboa issued another decree designating 20 drug trafficking gangs operating in the country as terrorist groups and authorizing the Ecuadorian military to “neutralize” them under international humanitarian law.
The government says at least 30 attacks have taken place since authorities announced that Los Choneros gang leader Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, was found missing from his cell at a low-security prison on Sunday. He was scheduled to be transferred to a high-security facility that day.
Police respond to an attack on the TC Television Network, a public television station in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Tuesday, January 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
Ecuadorian officials announced Tuesday that another gang leader, Fabricio Colón Pico of the Los Lobos group, had escaped from a prison in the city of Riobamba. Colón Pico was arrested Friday as part of a kidnapping investigation and also accused of trying to assassinate one of the country's top prosecutors.
Other attacks include an explosion near the home of the president of the National Judicial Court and the kidnapping of four police officers on Monday evening. Police said one officer was kidnapped in the capital Quito and three in the city of Quevedo.
Authorities say Los Choneros, one of the Ecuadorian gangs blamed for a surge in violence largely linked to drug trafficking, has ties to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel.
Macías' whereabouts are unknown. Prosecutors opened an investigation and charged two guards in connection with his alleged escape, but neither police, the prison system, nor the federal government confirmed whether the prisoner had escaped from the facility or was possibly hiding inside.
Soldiers patrol in front of the Government Palace during the state of emergency in Quito, Ecuador, Tuesday, January 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
He escaped from a high-security facility in February 2013 but was recaptured weeks later.
Macías, who was convicted of drug trafficking, murder and organized crime, was serving a 36-year sentence at La Regional prison in the port of Guayaquil.
Located on the Pacific coast of South America between Peru and Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producers, Ecuador has emerged in recent years as a major transit point for the drug. Much of the violence plaguing the country stems from drug gangs fighting among themselves and the government for control of ports and smuggling routes.
___
Solano reported from Quito, Ecuador. Gabriela Molina from Quito, Ecuador, and Manuel Rueda in Bogota, Colombia contributed.