2024-01-09 21:50:00
He Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboadeclared the country in a state of “internal armed conflict” and ordered the army to carry out military operations against the country’s powerful drug trafficking gangs.
“I have signed an executive decree declaring an internal armed conflict” and “I have ordered the armed forces to carry out military operations to neutralize these groups,” Noboa reported after the gangsters declared “war” against the security forces and civilians. .
Below, the most important news of the crisis in Ecuador:
Ecuador lives days of terror after the outbreak of drug violence
President Daniel Noboa faces the first crisis of his government with a outbreak of violence linked to drug traffickingwith kidnappings of police officers, two drug lords escaping from prison, riots in prisons and attacks with explosives in the streets.
The prison escape of Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito”, head of the main criminal gang known as Los Choneros, triggered the crisis on Sunday. Since then, Ecuador has been experiencing nights of terror: seven police officers were kidnapped in the midst of the state of emergency ordered by the government on Monday.
Armed and hooded criminals entered a television channel in Ecuador
According to authorities, seven police officers were kidnapped in Machala, Quito and in the Province of Los Ríos, and there were also explosions against a police station, the home of the president of the National Court and vehicles set on fire.
The state of emergency applies for 60 days throughout the country, including prisons. The measure includes a six-hour curfew, between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.
The kidnappings of police officers were added to violent acts in the coastal Esmeraldas (northwest and near the border with Colombia), one of the Ecuadorian provinces controlled by mafias. Several people threw an explosive device near a police station and two vehicles were burned in other places, leaving no victims.
He escaped again from the “Fito” prison, one of the most dangerous criminals in Ecuador who decrees a curfew
In Quito, the explosion of a car and the explosion of a device near a pedestrian bridge were also reported. Its mayor, Pabel Muñoz, asked the Executive to “militarize” strategic facilities in the face of the “unprecedented security crisis.”
Ecuador went from being an island of peace to a drug war fort and 2023 closed with more than 7,800 homicides and 220 tons of drugs seized, new records in the nation of 17 million inhabitants. Since 2021, clashes between prisoners have left more than 460 dead.
In addition, homicides on the streets between 2018 and 2023 grew by almost 800%, going from 6 to 46 per 100,000 inhabitants.
How it all started: the escape of the leader “Fito”, the “most dangerous criminal in Ecuador”
The escape of the leader of “Los Choneros”, alias “Fito”, led to the current situation in Ecuador. José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito”, leader of the organized crime gang “Los Choneros”, escaped from the Guayaquil prison last Sunday, January 7.
“Fito”, who was imprisoned in the Guayaquil Regional Prison, had been serving a 34-year sentence since 2011 for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.
The last time “Fito” was seen was last September, when he was temporarily transferred to another maximum security prison in Guayaquil after the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
Then, he appeared in photographs obese, with long hair and a prominent beard. Thousands of uniformed officers guarded it, in one of the largest military and police operations carried out there by former President Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023).
Given this event, President Noboa decreed this Monday a state of emergency for the entire country, including the prison system; a measure taken in the face of the “serious internal commotion” in the nation.
Macías’ whereabouts remain unknown, but his escape exposed the fragile prison system in Ecuador, as well as the power and legitimacy enjoyed by criminal gangs in these and other places.
Men armed with rifles and grenades take over live television channel
A group of hooded men, armed with rifles and grenades, broke in this Tuesday during the live broadcast on public television TC in Guayaquil, in a new drug attack that has shaken Ecuador for two days.
“Please don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” a woman can be heard pleading in the televised images, while other people sitting on the floor cover their faces.
The armed people showed off their arsenal, until the lights on the set went out. The live feed continued to broadcast the gunshots, screams and cries heard off-camera.
“We are in the air so that they know that we do not play with the mafia,” proclaimed one of the hooded individuals, who hid their faces under caps and masks and showed weapons and explosives.
“Please, they came to kill us,” one of the people who was inside the channel during the attack wrote to a journalist.
The live intimidation lasted about 30 minutes and then the police were observed entering.
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