At least ten people have been killed in Ecuador’s “internal armed conflict” as the new leader launches a campaign against crime in the South American country.
Eight civilians were killed and three were wounded in attacks in the port city of Guayaquil, while two officers were “viciously murdered by armed criminals” in the nearby town of Nobol, police said Tuesday evening.
The gunmen interrupted a live television broadcast – one of several violent incidents playing out across the country on Tuesday. Footage on social media showed the assailants forcing TV staff of the state-owned network onto the floor of the studio as shots and yelling were heard in the background.
The latest killings have been blamed on criminal gangs in what the newly-elected Ecuadorian president described as an “internal armed conflict” in the country.
Daniel Noboa, 36, issued a decree ordering the country’s security forces to “neutralize” the criminal gangs blamed for wreaking havoc across the Latin American country.
Following Noboa’s decree, Joint Command Chief of Ecuador’s Armed Forces, Admiral Jaime Vela Erazo, asserted Tuesday that the country’s leadership would not “back down or negotiate” with criminal gangs. He insisted the “future of our country is at stake.”
“From this moment on, every terrorist group identified in the aforementioned [emergency] decree has become a military target,” he said, warning the criminals.
Ecuador’s police added that perpetrators of “acts of terrorism” would be brought to justice.
Commander of the National Police, General Cesar Zapata, said all the armed men who attacked the TV station had been arrested and members of the media outlet had been evacuated, and all staff and hostages were alive.
At least four firearms, two grenades, and “explosive material” were recovered, according to Zapata.
TV anchor Jorge Rendon described the takeover of the TC Television studio as an “extremely violent attack.”
“They wanted to enter the studio so that we could say what they wanted, I guess their message,” Rendon said in a video posted on TC Television’s official account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Ecuador’s deteriorating security situation has been attributed to dog-eat-dog rivalry among cut-throat criminal gangs, which have been meting out brutal and often public shows of violence in the country’s streets and prisons in their battle to control drug trafficking routes.
This week, in one act of violence involving three agents, an explosive device had been “placed and detonated” in a vehicle the officers were moving in, police said.
Two vehicles were set on fire with one causing a blaze at a gas station in another act of terrorism in the northwestern city of Esmeraldas.
In the capital city of Quito, police found a burned vehicle with traces of gas cylinders inside. Multiple explosions were reported in the area with police saying they had received reports of an explosion at a pedestrian bridge outside Quito and attended “over 20 emergencies during (Monday) evening and overnight (Tuesday) in different parts of the country.” No known casualties related to the explosions were immediately reported.
Prison officials sounded the alarm, saying at least six incidents took place inside jails on Monday, including disturbances and retention of prison guards.
They warned that the situation in prisons was not under control. In the past few days, the leaders of two of Ecuador’s most feared gangs had escaped from prison.
Meanwhile, neighboring Latin American countries expressed concern over the situation in Ecuador.
Both Colombia and Peru voiced support for Noboa’s government to restore order.
Peru said the country plans to declare an emergency along its entire northern border with Ecuador. Peru’s interior minister has also ordered National Police to reinforce security on the border, the interior ministry said.
The recent chaos and violence in Ecuador has been the most serious test yet for the young president, who won last year’s run-off vote vowing to target criminal gangs in the country.
