“We’re on the air so they know not to play with the mafia,” a man said live into the camera at a TV studio in Ecuador. People scream. Shots can be heard.
In Ecuador, gunmen broke into the premises of the state television station TC Televisión in the port city of Guayaquil during a live broadcast.
On Tuesday, a group of masked men could be seen live on television threatening journalists and employees with weapons and explosives. They repeatedly hold objects that look like sticks of dynamite and grenades into the camera and put them in the jacket pockets of TV station employees. In one shot you can see an attacker kicking an employee in the head on the ground.
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The Ecuadorian police announced the criminals’ intrusion on X/Twitter, writing there that “special forces would be deployed on site to deal with this emergency.” Shortly afterwards, the police confirmed the arrest of several people.
The attackers lie tied up on the ground after the police overpowered them
Photo: ECUADOREAN POLICE/via REUTERS
Police chief César Zapata told Teleamazonas television that officers had confiscated the weapons and explosives that the attackers had with them. “This is an act that should be considered an act of terrorism,” Zapata said.
A few hours after the crime, the Ecuadorian public prosecutor’s office announced that 13 people had been arrested for breaking into the television studio. You will therefore be charged with terrorism.
Police storm the television station
Photo: STRINGER/AFP
Footprints and blood can be seen in the TV station
Photo: STR/AFP
State of emergency declared
Just a day earlier, President Daniel Noboa had declared a state of emergency in view of the chaotic conditions in the South American country’s prisons. This means, among other things, that the right to assemble is temporarily restricted, according to the decree published on Monday. In addition, a nighttime curfew will apply for the next 60 days.
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Shortly after the armed raid on the TV studio, Noboa issued another decree. In this, he described 20 drug gangs operating in the country as “terrorist groups” and authorized the Ecuadorian military to “neutralize” them within the framework of international humanitarian law.
Criminal gangs had fought violently in the country’s prisons and taken guards hostage. According to the prison administration, the head of the powerful gang “Los Choneros”, Adolfo Macías alias “Fito”, apparently managed to escape. This Tuesday, the authorities also reported the escape of another drug lord, Fabricio Colón Pico, one of the leaders of the “Los Lobos” gang.
People flee from the attack by armed men on the TV studio
Photo: STRINGER/AFP
Violence has increased dramatically in Ecuador in recent years. With around 25 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest values in Latin America was recorded in 2022. Many of the overcrowded prisons are controlled by criminal organizations and fights between gangs often occur there.
2024-01-09 22:21:47
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