Chaos in Ecuador. Gunmen stormed into the set of a public television (TC) in Guayaquil on Tuesday afternoon and took journalists and other staff hostage. If police managed to intervene, President Daniel Noboa declared his country in a state of “internal armed conflict,” although the number of casualties was still unknown. Two days after the escape of public enemy number 1, Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, leader of the country's largest criminal gang, he ordered by decree the “neutralization” of criminal groups involved in drug trafficking.
“We are extremely concerned about today's violence and hostage-taking in Ecuador,” said the head of American diplomacy for Latin America, Brian Nichols, on X (ex-Twitter).
The United States “condemns these brazen attacks,” a State Department spokesman said. “We are in close contact with President (Daniel) Noboa and the Ecuadorian government and are ready to provide assistance,” this source added.
Hostage taking live on television
Surreal images of the hostage-taking and police operation were broadcast live by public broadcaster TC. “Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot!” shouts a woman in the middle of the gunfire, while the attackers, equipped with pistols, shotguns and some with homemade grenades, beat the frightened people and force them to the ground.
One of them wears a hood, others wear hoods and hats. Still others expose their faces or film themselves with their cell phones, while some of them use the fingers of both hands to make the usual identifying marks of the criminal gangs linked to the drug trade that are unleashing a reign of terror in Ecuador.
“They came to kill us, my God protect us,” one of the captured journalists wrote in a WhatsApp message to an AFP correspondent. Complaints can be heard in the background.
In the midst of the gunfire, these images were broadcast live for several minutes, even though the lights on the set went out and the camera froze. Until the police apparently intervened and shouted “police, police”.
“National police units (…) have been informed of this crime and are already on site,” the police said in a statement to the press. At his official X account, Ecuadorian police released images of the teams evacuating.
139 prison guards were held hostage
The crisis began on Sunday with the spectacular escape of 44-year-old Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, the leader of the “Choneros”. According to experts, a gang of around 8,000 men has become the main player in the flourishing drug trade in Ecuador.
The man often described as public enemy number 1, suspected of being involved in the assassination of a major presidential candidate in August 2022, disappeared from a high-security facility in the vast Guayaquil complex where he had served a 34-year prison sentence since 2011 for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder. He had already escaped from a high-security prison in 2013 and was caught again three months later.
The escape of “Fito” was followed by several mutinies and hostage-takings of guards in various prisons, all of which were spread on social networks through frightening videos that showed the prisoners being threatened with the knives of masked prisoners. New videos emerged on Tuesday, this time showing the execution of at least two guards by shooting and hanging.
In a press release, the Prison Administration (SNAI) reported that 139 of its employees are currently being held hostage in five prisons in the country. SNAI has not commented on the execution videos. The youngest president in Ecuador's history, President Noboa, 36, declared a 60-day state of emergency throughout Ecuador on Monday. The army is therefore authorized to maintain order on the streets (with a night curfew) and in prisons.
” Declaration of war “
So far with apparently little effect: seven police officers were kidnapped in the night from Monday to Tuesday. Explosions also occurred and vehicles were set on fire in an attack on a police station and the home of the President of the National Court. The local press spoke of a “night of terror” and a “failed state”.
A video published on social networks shows three of the kidnapped police officers who were forced, under threat of small arms, to read a message addressed to the head of state: “You have declared war, you will wage war (…).” They have declared a state of emergency , we declare police, civilians and military as spoils of war.”
New humiliation On Tuesday, authorities announced the escape of another drug trafficker, Fabricio Colon Pico, a leader of Los Lobos, a criminal gang that competes with the Choneros. He was arrested on Friday for the crime of kidnapping and his alleged role in an assassination attempt on the Attorney General.
The government complained of a “very high level of infiltration” by criminal groups within the state and described Ecuador’s prison system as a “failure.” “We will not negotiate with terrorists and will not stop until we restore peace for all Ecuadorians,” President Noboa stressed on Monday.