The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, declared this Tuesday that there is an “internal armed conflict” in the country, which implies the immediate deployment and intervention of security forces against organized crime. The country is currently experiencing an unprecedented escalation of terror and violence. At two o'clock in the afternoon, TC Televisión's broadcast was interrupted and an organized crime group took the journalists hostage. Through a live broadcast and on a national level, the entire country witnessed how about ten masked and armed men attacked the sewer workers in the city of Guayaquil. Gunshots were heard on television during a nearly half-hour live broadcast in which journalists pleaded not to harm them. Then the signal was interrupted.
The president, who took office less than two months ago, made the decision to declare a state of martial law a day after imposing a nighttime curfew. It has also declared 22 organized crime groups terrorists and ordered the armed forces to carry out military operations to neutralize them.
In the channel's live images, several masked men can be seen threatening workers and demanding that they ask the police who arrived at the scene to leave. However, the agents managed to gain access inside and rescue the hostages. Several of the attackers were arrested.
Criminals threaten TC TV presenter during live broadcast on January 9, 2024.
The wave of attacks that has been sweeping the country for three days has increased this Tuesday, especially in Guayaquil, the most populous city in the country and epicenter of the very serious security crisis that is suffocating Ecuadorians. In the coastal city, a group of criminals also tried to break into the Teodoro Maldonado Carbo Hospital. Videos are also circulating on social networks of students and teachers locked in classrooms at Machala University on the Ecuadorian coast, trying to protect themselves from suspected criminals who have gained entry to the educational center.
The situation is also delicate in the capital Quito, with several shops having to close due to looting. At around three o'clock in the afternoon, officials from the Carondelet Palace in the historic center and other state institutions were evacuated for security reasons. The traffic chaos in the capital is greater at this time than on any other day.
Since last weekend, six prisons have been taken over by inmates who kidnapped prison officers and caused clashes inside the detention centers. Tensions rose after José Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, Ecuador's most dangerous criminal, escaped from the Guayaquil regional prison along with four other people belonging to his security circle. The authorities of the SNAI, the body responsible for prison control, came to the attention of Fito's cell, decorated with his image, empty through an operation to control weapons and prohibited items carried out by the police and the armed forces on Sunday morning.
The government still does not recognize the escape of the leader of the Los Choneros crime gang and has only stated that “he is not appearing”. However, Ecuadorian prosecutors filed charges related to the alleged escape against two prison officers believed to have been involved in the escape.
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