This Tuesday, a group of hooded armed men took over the facilities of the Ecuadorian network TC Televisión in the north of the city of Guayaquil, located in the east of the country. The commando was heavily armed and occupied the television channel for a few hours.
The incident began after 2:00 p.m. (local time), when members of criminal groups broke into the facilities and opened fire inside the studio while the TC Television signal was on the air.
Just a few minutes later, the Ecuadorian television network suspended the broadcast of its signal and some journalists asked the Police for help through social networks.
“We are in the air so that they know that we do not play with the mafia,” llone of the hooded individuals said. The assailants hid their faces with caps and masks and in the images you can see how they were carrying weapons and explosives.
The assailants threatened the journalists and demanded that they ask President Noboa not to send the police. Finally, elite agents entered the facilities, arrested the criminals and released the hostages.
After the incident, the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, declared the existence of an “internal armed conflict” in the country and ordered the Armed Forces to carry out military actions.
13 arrested
The assault ended with the arrest of at least thirteen criminals and the release of the channel’s staff, who had been detained in the middle of the live broadcast.
Riots in six prisons
In addition to the assault on the TC Televisión television network, riots also occurred in six prisons and other violent acts in Quito and several other cities.
Faced with this situation of conflict in the country and after the alleged “evasion” of one of the most dangerous criminals in the country, the president declared a state of emergency throughout the country for sixty days, with a curfew during the night and early morning, even Thus, the measure did not prevent chaos from taking over several cities and provinces in the country.
Escaped prisoners
The incidents began shortly after the authorities deployed operations in a Guayaquil prison in search of José Adolfo Macías, alias ‘Fito’, leader of ‘Los Choneros’, considered one of the most dangerous criminal gangs in the country for its alleged links with Mexican cartels, and who apparently escaped over the weekend.
On the other hand, and in the midst of the state of emergency decreed on Monday, Fabricio Colón Pico escaped from prison, captured last week after the State Attorney General, Diana Salazar, denounced an alleged plan to attack him.
Colón Pico escaped from a prison in Riobamba along with other inmates, according to the entity in charge of prisons, which later confirmed the recapture of twelve prisoners.
Internal armed conflict
In this Tuesday’s executive decree, the Government declared the “Internal Armed Conflict” and identified transnational organized crime groups “as terrorist organizations and belligerent non-state actors.”
Among them he listed the “Águilas, ÁguilasKiller, Ak47, Caballeros Oscuros, ChoneKiller, Choneros, Covicheros, Cuartel de las Feas, Cubanos, Fatales, Gánster, Kater Piler, Lagartos, Latin Kings, Lobos, Los p.27, Los Tiburones, Mafia 18, Mafia Trébol, Patrones, R7, Tiguerones”.
Subsequently, Noboa announced on his social networks the installation of the Public and State Security Council (COSEPE) and noted that they will not allow “terrorist groups to break the peace of the country.”