Ecuador\u2019s President Daniel Noboa has declared an \u201cinternal armed conflict\u201d in the country, ordering security forces to \u201cneutralize\u201d several criminal groups accused of spreading extreme violence in Ecuador. <\/p>\n
The decree came shortly after hooded and armed men interrupted a live television broadcast \u2013 one of several violent incidents playing out across the country on Tuesday. Local media outlets also reported armed individuals at a hospital and a university in the city of Guayaquil. <\/p>\n
Ecuadorians were stunned as they watched the takeover of the Guayaquil-based network\u2019s live broadcast. The assailants were seen forcing the staff of TC Television onto the floor of the studio as shots and yelling were heard in the background, social media video showed of the incident at the state-owned network. <\/p>\n
Ecuador\u2019s police later said they had arrested all the armed men, members of the media outlet had been evacuated, and all staff and hostages of the network were alive. <\/strong> <\/p>\n At least four firearms, two grenades, and \u201cexplosive material\u201d were recovered and 13 people apprehended, C\u00e9sar Zapata, General Commander of the National Police said. He added that the perpetrators would be brought to justice for their \u201cacts of terrorism.\u201d <\/p>\n Police earlier had posted pictures of multiple individuals faced down with their hands zip-tied behind their backs. <\/p>\n The situation has struck fear among many Ecuadorians. One woman, who lives outside Guayaquil and was told to go home early by her boss, described the chaotic traffic on her drive home. \u201cCars were going the wrong way; everyone was just trying to get through,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe scariest part was seeing the desperation, seeing businesses shutting down, desperate people, including children and women, running frantically in avenues only meant for cars.\u201d <\/p>\n The country has been rocked by explosions, police kidnappings, and prison disturbances since Noboa on Monday declared a nationwide state of emergency after high-profile gang leader Adolfo \u201cFito\u201d Macias escaped from a prison in Guayaquil. <\/p>\n The state of emergency will last for 60 days and mobilize the police and the armed forces to control disturbances to public order. It includes a curfew, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., to restrict meetings and actions that may threaten public order. Noboa\u2019s beleaguered predecessor, former President Guillermo Lasso, instated several states of emergency with limited success. <\/p>\n Since it was announced, at least seven police agents have been kidnapped in three different cities, according to a post on X by the National Police. <\/p>\n The spiraling violence is the most extreme test yet for the new president, who won last year\u2019s run-off vote with promises to tackle soaring crime. <\/p>\n The country\u2019s worsening security situation is largely driven by rival criminal organizations, which have been meting out brutal and often public shows of violence in the country\u2019s streets and prisons in their battle to control drug trafficking routes. <\/p>\n In one of the kidnappings this week, in which three agents were taken, an explosive device had been \u201cplaced and detonated\u201d in a vehicle the officers were moving in, police said. <\/p>\n In Esmeraldas, in the northwest of the country, two vehicles were set on fire with one causing a blaze at a gas station. <\/p>\n In the capital Quito, the police found a burned vehicle with traces of gas cylinders inside. Residents reported on social media that they had heard a loud explosion in the area. <\/p>\n Police also said they had received reports of an explosion at a pedestrian bridge outside Quito and attended \u201cover 20 emergencies during (Monday) evening and overnight (Tuesday) in different parts of the country. There are currently no known casualties related to the explosions. <\/p>\n Ecuador\u2019s penitentiary service, the SNAI, said that at least six incidents took place inside prison facilities Monday, including disturbances and retention of penitentiary agents. This situation in the prisons, they say, has not been controlled. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, another alleged gang leader, Fabricio Colon Pico, escaped from a prison in Riobamba in the last few hours, according to the city\u2019s mayor Jhon Vinueza. <\/p>\n Ecuador\u2019s Armed Forces said they carried out control operations Monday night and early Tuesday in the most conflict-ridden areas. <\/p>\n On the political side, Ecuador\u2019s National Assembly is holding an emergency meeting to \u201cgenerate concrete actions in face of the national commotion and multiple acts that threaten public peace.\u201d <\/p>\n The search for Adolfo Macias, more popularly known by his alias \u201cFito,\u201d continued <\/strong>as more than 3,000 police officers and members of the armed forces have been deployed to find him, the government said on Sunday. Ecuador authorities said they have not yet pinpointed the exact time and date that Macias escaped prison. <\/p>\n Mac\u00edas is the leader of Los Choneros, one of\u00a0Ecuador\u2019s most feared gangs, which has been linked to maritime drug trafficking to Mexico and the US in coordination with Mexico\u2019s Sinaloa cartel and the Oliver Sinisterra Front in Colombia, according to the Insight Crime research center. <\/p>\n He was jailed after being convicted of drug trafficking. Before his assassination, the late Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio said in July that he had been threatened by Mac\u00edas and warned against continuing with his campaign against\u00a0gang violence\u00a0for the leadership. <\/p>\n This is a breaking news story. More to follow.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n Ecuador\u2019s President Daniel Noboa has declared an \u201cinternal armed conflict\u201d in the country, ordering security forces to \u201cneutralize\u201d several criminal groups accused of spreading extreme violence in Ecuador. The decree came shortly after hooded and armed men interrupted a live television broadcast \u2013 one of several violent incidents playing out across the country on Tuesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Prison chaos<\/h2>\n