A wave of violence has swept across Ecuador, leading to the declaration of a state of emergency and the mobilisation of the armed forces.
Background Story – Before Jan. 7
In recent years, the country’s prisons have been plagued by violent feuds between jailed members of rival gangs, often resulting in multiple massacres of inmates.
The Choneros are a powerful prison gang thought to be behind many of the deadly riots and prison fights which have erupted in Ecuador’s jails over recent years.
Fito, a notorious gang leader, is thought to have absconded just hours before his planned transfer on Sunday, January 7. Two prison guards have been detained on suspicion of helping him escape.
His escape is also a blow to the government of President Daniel Noboa, who was sworn-in in November after winning an election tarnished by the assassination of presidential candidate and journalist Fernando Villavicencio.
Fito’s Jail Break – Jan. 7
Thousands of authorities in Ecuador were engaged in a manhunt to locate one of the country’s “most-wanted” criminals, after officials revealed on Sunday, January 7, that notorious drug lord José Adolfo Macías Villamar, popularly known as “Fito,” had disappeared from his prison cell at a detention center in the port city of Guayaquil.
The TV Station Raid – Jan. 7
The eventual turn-out of events in Ecuador today was triggered by the escape of Fito, from a prison in Guayaquil, where a public television channel was also raided by masked gunmen.
The attackers stormed into TC’s live studio during a broadcast, holding staff at gunpoint and injuring two employees. Police arrested 13 suspects and said they would be “punished for terrorist acts”.
It is not clear if the raid was linked to Fito’s disappearance or the feud between drug cartels over cocaine routes to the US and Europe. Fito was the boss of the Choneros gang, one of 22 criminal groups listed by President Noboa in his emergency decree.
President Noboa said the country faced an “internal armed conflict” and ordered the military to “neutralise” what he called “transnational organised crime, terrorist organisations and belligerent non-state actors”.
The TV station assault was captured on camera and broadcast live. A woman could be heard begging, “Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot,” while a man screamed in agony.
“Please, they came in to kill us,” a TC employee told AFP in a WhatsApp message. “God don’t let this happen. The criminals are on air.”
One of the captives had a pump-action shotgun pointed at his head, while another was threatened with a revolver. A cameraman was shot in the leg, and another employee’s arm was broken.
“Through our earpieces the producers told us, ‘Be careful, they are trying to enter, they are stealing, they are mugging us’,” Jorge Rendon, the deputy director of news, told Reuters.
“The doors in the studio are very thick, almost bullet-proofed, and they were trying to get in because they wanted to gain access to the studio so we would say whatever they wanted us to say,” he said.
State of Emergency Declared – Jan. 8
In response to Fito’s disappearance as well as violence that broke out in prisons after, the police have made 13 arrests, which injured two employees. Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared on Monday a 60-day state of emergency over the nation, which reportedly entails nightly curfews and a suspension of the right of assembly.
Latest Developments – Jan. 9
At least seven police officers were also kidnapped and a video circulating on social media shows three of the kidnapped officers sitting on the ground with a gun pointed at them as one is forced to read a statement addressed to President Noboa, AFP reports.
“You declared war, you will get war,” the officer reads out. “You declared a state of emergency. We declare police, civilians and soldiers to be the spoils of war.”
Police have ordered the evacuation of the government compound in Quito over security concerns.
Quito residents told Reuters news agency the city was in chaos since news of the attack at the TV station in Guayaquil.
“There’s too much nervousness in the city,” said Mario Urena. “At work, people are leaving earlier. All the people are leaving, you see a lot of traffic and alarms everywhere. There’s a chaos.”
Other people in the city of Cuenca told AFP of their shock at seeing the TV station seized.
“In Ecuador, we have never seen this kind of thing, where a channel has been practically hijacked and a broadcast starts with shootings, with kidnappings,” said Francisco Rosas. “So what kind of security situation are we in? And if a television station is capable of receiving this type of robbery, this type of insecurity, imagine restaurants or shops.”
Military officers guard a metro station on January 09, 2024 in Quito, Ecuador. President Noboa declared on Monday 8th a 60-day state of emergency and curfew.
The US, Peru intervene – Jan. 9
The United States expressed its condemnation of the “brazen attacks” and offered its assistance to the Ecuadorean government. Peru also deployed a police force to the border to prevent any spillover of violence.
Ecuador, a major exporter of bananas, oil, coffee, cocoa, shrimps and fish products, has seen a surge in violence inside and outside its prisons, resulting in at least 10 deaths since Monday. In addition to Fito, another drug lord escaped from a prison in Riobamba, along with nearly 40 other inmates. In Guayaquil and Nobol, eight people were killed and three injured in gang-related attacks on Tuesday.
