Deserted streets, closed shops and the center of Quito is militarized. An Ecuador immersed in a “state of war” faces, for the third consecutive day, this Wednesday (10) the power of the drug trade in a climate of panic and fatigue.
“[Hoje sinto] a little bit of anger, yesterday it was fear,” Fernando Escobar, owner of a cafe in the Ecuadorian capital, told AFP.
Since Sunday, several criminal gangs and drug traffickers have demonstrated their strength in retaliation for President Daniel Noboa's plans to subjugate them with an iron fist: more than a hundred police and prison staff held hostage by prisoners, attacks on journalists and countless armed attacks According to the latest report, there were 14 deaths.
“We are in a state of war and we cannot give in to these terrorist groups,” Noboa said on Radio Canela on Wednesday, after declaring on Tuesday that the country was in an “internal armed conflict”.
Dozens of soldiers protect the presidential headquarters in central Quito, while to the north La Carolina Park, one of the largest in the city of nearly three million residents, is empty without the usual sports enthusiasts.
There are few cars on the streets of the capital and in Guayaquil (southwest), the port city that has become the epicenter of drug trafficking to the United States and Europe in recent years.
The offensive by criminal organizations linked to cartels in Mexico and Colombia included an unusual and spectacular invasion recorded live on Tuesday. Men armed with guns and grenades took over a public television station during the midday news, threatened journalists and shot two employees. There were no deaths and several attackers were arrested.
The attack in Guayaquil on the headquarters of TC Televisión increased the panic among the population, who quickly left the streets to seek shelter in their homes.
“The fear we had yesterday was great. Today we are not safe, anything can happen,” explained Luis Chiliguano, a 53yearold security guard who would rather “hide” than “face criminals who are better armed.”
“Great courage”
Due to its strategic location, Guayaquil has become the epicenter of drug trafficking to the USA and Europe in recent years.
Faced with the new wave of violence, President Noboa announced a frontal war against some twenty organizations, which together have more than 20,000 members, and granted the gangs “belligerent” status.
“This government is taking the necessary measures that no one has wanted to take in recent years. And that requires great courage, not just empty courage,” explained the 36yearold president in a radio interview.
Terror reigned after the escape of Adolfo Macías, known as “Fito,” the leader of the country's largest criminal gang, Los Choneros, who was being held in a prison in Guayaquil.
Hundreds of soldiers and police are searching for Fito while there is a state of emergency across the country, including in prisons, in addition to a mandatory sixhour curfew from 11 p.m. local time (1 a.m. in Brasília).
Another crime boss escaped from prison on Tuesday. Fabricio Colón Pico, one of the bosses of Los Lobos, is accused of kidnapping the attorney general and plotting the assassination.
There were riots between inmates in various prisons and the arrests of more than 100 prison officials, of whom 41 were released.
Authorities arrested 329 “terrorists,” shot five others and recaptured 28 escaped prisoners, said force commander Jaime Vela.
International concern
This Wednesday, the United States said it was prepared to “accept violence” but ruled out “military support.”
Peru declared its entire border with Ecuador a state of emergency, while Colombia militarized its border area.
Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Spain, the European Union (EU) and the UN rejected violence. France and Russia have warned their citizens not to travel to Ecuador.
Located between Colombia and Peru, the world's largest cocaine producers, Ecuador was for many years a country spared from the drug trade. Recently, however, it has transformed into a new bastion of the drug trade, with around 20 gangs vying for control of the area but united in their war against the state.
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.
Noboa came to power in November as the youngest president in the country's history and vowed to take a strong stance against drug trafficking. He was elected for 18 months to complete the fouryear term of his predecessor Guillermo Lasso.
Fito was serving a 34year sentence in the Guayaquil Regional Prison for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder. The image, in which he appears overweight and with disheveled hair, went viral after the August assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who had denounced him for making threats days earlier.