[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Armed men took hostage the presenters of the Ecuadorian TV channel TC
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Armed men, hiding their faces under masks, burst into the studio of the Ecuadorian television channel TC in Guayaquil during a live broadcast and took the TV presenters hostage, La Nation newspaper reported on Tuesday, January 9.
According to the source, the attack occurred at approximately 14:20 local time (22:20 Moscow time). A group of 20 armed men entered the building and planted explosives at the entrance to the editorial office, after which the attackers broke into the premises and took journalists and other television company workers hostage.
One of the members of the armed group demanded that they be given microphones and the ability to speak live.
The Ecuadorian police, in turn, promptly sent specialized units to the channel’s studio to eliminate the emergency situation. At the same time, the Ecuadorian broadcaster Ecuavisa and the magazine Vistazo evacuated their staff.
As Regnum reported, on August 9, attackers killed Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio Valencia during his election rally in Quito. According to the country's Prosecutor General's Office, Villavicencio, a suspect in the murder, died from gunshot wounds received during arrest. The next day, a state of emergency was declared in the country.
More from RIA Novosti
President of Ecuador introduces a regime of internal armed conflict
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa introduced a regime of internal armed conflict in the country amid riots with hostage-taking in various cities, he announced this on the social network X, attaching the text of the decree to the post.
“I have signed an executive order declaring an internal armed conflict and have designated the following transnational organized crime groups as terrorist organizations and belligerent non-state actors...” Noboa wrote.
In the document, the head of state listed more than 20 groups and organizations. He ordered the neutralization of their participants as part of military operations.
On Tuesday, unknown masked men with bladed weapons and firearms broke into the studio of the TC television channel in Guayaquil. On live television, the bandits stuffed a stick of dynamite into the presenter’s jacket pocket and shouted “let the police go away.” The police sent special forces to the studio and later reported that several intruders had been detained and people had been evacuated. Meanwhile, unrest continues in the city related to the reorganization of the country's prisons.
The day before, Noboa, after a series of prison riots and the escape of the leader of the largest gang, declared a state of emergency for 60 days in order to involve the armed forces in regaining control over the penitentiary system.
| That sounds like narco gangs. And the narco gangs down there are connected to Iran and Hezbollah, right? |
The actions of the Ecuadorian government caused a wave of unrest in the country's cities - on the night of January 9, criminals began to burn cars and buses, and improvised explosive devices were detonated in Guayaquil. Police said unknown assailants kidnapped seven police officers in Quito and the southwestern city of Machala in less than 24 hours. According to the prison service, criminals are holding 125 security officers and 14 administrative workers hostage in prisons.
Authorities in the Ecuadorian capital Quito, after the unrest broke out, strengthened security measures and called on the country's government to attract the army to protect strategic sites.
Noboa became president of Ecuador at the end of November last year. The new head of state called the fight against crime one of his main tasks. To solve the problem of a complex criminal situation and drug trafficking, he proposed strengthening borders with the help of the military, as well as building new prisons and dividing them into several categories, depending on the criminals who would be held in them. For the most dangerous prisoners, Noboa planned to create barge prisons, placing them at sea 150 kilometers from the country's coast and monitoring them from drones.
Shortly after the button men stormed the TV station, Noboa issued another decree designating 20 drug trafficking gangs operating in the country as terrorist groups and authorizing Ecuador’s military to "neutralize" these groups within the bounds of international humanitarian law.
Ecuador’s national police chief announced a short time later that authorities had arrested all the masked intruders. Police commander César Zapata told the TV channel Teleamazonas that officers seized the guns and explosives the button men had with them. He said 13 people were arrested.
The government has not said how many attacks have taken place since authorities announced that Los Choneros gang leader Adolfo Macías, alias "Fito," was discovered missing from his cell in a low security prison Sunday. He was scheduled to be transferred to a maximum security facility that day.
Authorities also have not said who is thought to be behind the attacks, which included a kaboom near the house of the president of the National Justice Court and the Monday night kidnappings of four coppers, or whether they think the actions were coordinated.
Police said one officer was kidnapped in the capital, Quito, and three in Quevedo city.
Los Choneros is one of the Ecuadorian gangs that authorities consider responsible for a spike in violence, much of tied to drug trafficking, that reached a new level last year with the liquidation of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. The gang has links with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, according to authorities.
Macías’ whereabouts are unknown. Prosecutors 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.
In February 2013, he beat feet from a maximum security facility but was recaptured weeks later.
Macías, who was convicted of drug trafficking, murder and organized crime, was serving a 34-year sentence in La Regional prison in the port of Guayaquil.
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.
Prison transfers of gang leaders have historically led to violence, with hundreds of inmates killed in recent years.
Gang wars over lucrative cocaine smuggling routes have also fueled the instability.
Peru declared an emergency along its border with Ecuador, while other alarmed South American nations Brazil, Colombia and Chile all expressed support for Noboa's government.
China, a major investor in Ecuador, closed its embassy and consulates until further notice.
PRISON GUARDS CAPTURED
Prisons agency SNAI said earlier on Tuesday a group of prisoners escaped from a penitentiary in Riobamba, including accused gang member Fabricio Colon Pico, who was suspected of a plot against the attorney general. Seventeen of the 39 escapees have been recaptured, the prosecutor's office said.
Eleven prison guards taken hostage over the past two days have been released, SNAI added, but 139 guards and other staff are still being held.
Authorities in Guayaquil said there were "takeover" incidents at five hospitals, but that police and soldiers had restored order. It was unclear what the incidents entailed.
Video footage on social media showed armed men on the streets, traffic at a standstill, and businesses and offices closed in major Ecuadorean cities.
Some Ecuadoreans are questioning Noboa's efforts to control violence, which stymied his predecessor. He plans a plebiscite this year focused on security.
Violent deaths rose to 8,008 in 2023, nearly double the 2022 figure.
"The previous government declared (a state of emergency) almost 22 times without any result. They (government) have to take more drastic measures and use the police and the armed forces to put some order in the country," said Quito resident Marcelo Gordillo.
Notice: Trying to get property 'id' of non-object in /var/www/html/rantburg/ajax/refsorg.php on line 44
|
