Armed and masked men broke into a television studio on Tuesday during a live broadcast in Ecuador, the South American country that has been rocked by a series of attacks in the wake of a powerful gang leader's apparent escape from prison.
The shocking incident was caught on camera, showing men armed with pistols and what looked like sticks of dynamite entering the set of the TC Television network in the port city of Guayaquil and shouting that they had bombs. Sounds similar to gunshots could be heard in the background.
The incident was a message by country's powerful criminal group and drug cartels, against whom Ecuador President Daniel Noboa ordered military operations on Tuesday. "You declared war, you will get war," a man on live TV is asked to read at gunpoint.
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Ecuador's national police chief said authorities have arrested all the gunmen who broke into the TV studio, adding that the guns and explosives the masked intruders had with them were also seized.
Police commander César Zapata, however, didn't say how many people were arrested.
What Is Happening In Ecuador
Ecuador has been rocked by a series of violent incidents, including abductions of police officers. The television studio incident prompted President Daniel Noboa to announce that the country had entered an “internal armed conflict.”
In recent years, Ecuador has been pounded by a surge in violence tied to drug trafficking, including homicides and kidnappings. The current unrest in Ecuador, long regarded as a peaceful country between Colombia and Peru, is being attributed to the prison escape of one of its most influential criminal bosses, Jose Adolfo Macias, also known as "Fito".
Ecuador is considered now as a key stop on the US- and Europe-bound cocaine trade.
The recent attacks include an explosion near the house of the president of the National Justice Court and the Monday night kidnappings of four police officers. According to police, one office was abducted in the capital, Quito, and three in Quevedo city.
President Daniel Noboa had on Monday also said that he would declare a national state of emergency, a measure that lets authorities suspend people's rights and mobilize the military in places like prisons.
Prison Escape Of 'Fito'
Los Choneros gang leader Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito,” was discovered missing from his cell in a low-security prison on Sunday, before he was scheduled to be transferred to a maximum-security facility that day.
Macías's whereabouts are unknown.
Prosecutors have opened an investigation and charged two guards in connection with his alleged escape, but neither the police, the corrections system, nor the federal government confirmed whether the prisoner fled the facility or might be hiding in it.
Macías, who was convicted of drug trafficking, murder and organised crime, was serving a 34-year sentence in La Regional prison in the port of Guayaquil.
Macias-led Los Choneros is one of the Ecuadorian gangs that authorities say are responsible for the surge in violence that reached a new level last year with the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. The gang has links with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, according to authorities.
Experts and authorities have acknowledged that gang members practically rule from inside the prisons, and Macías was believed to have continued controlling his group from within the detention facility, a news agency AP report mentioned.
National Emergency In Ecuador
While authorities also have not said who is thought to be behind the attacks, the government has previously blamed members of the main drug gangs for similar strikes.
On Monday, President Daniel Noboa decreed a national state of emergency for 60 days, allowing the authorities to suspend rights and mobilise the military in places like prisons. The government also imposed a curfew from 11 pm to 5 am.
Noboa said in a message on Instagram that he wouldn't stop until he “brings back peace to all Ecuadorians,” adding that his government had decided to confront crime. The wave of attacks began a few hours after Noboa's announcement.
The television studio incident prompted Noboa to order military operations after gangsters declared "war". In the footage circulating on social media, three of the kidnapped officers sitting on the ground with a gun pointed at them can be seen being forced to read a statement addressed to Noboa.
"You declared war, you will get war," one officer reads. "You declared a state of emergency. We declare police, civilians and soldiers to be the spoils of war," Noboba said in a statement
Noboa, 36, was elected in October with a pledge to fight drug crimes and violence in Ecuador.
