Ecuador’s President orders army to ‘neutralise’ 20 drugs gangs

Ecuador’s president has ordered his army to ‘neutralise’ 20 drug gangs after the nation descended into lawless chaos with heavily armed mobsters parading hostages and threatening to execute anyone found on the streets at night.

At least 10 people have been killed in a series of barbaric attacks by the gangs as the nation erupted into a deadly civil war, with hooded gangsters opening fire in a TV studio and prisoners executing or kidnapping their prison guards. 

The crazed criminals took scores of police officers hostage during their deadly rampage that saw explosions tear through Ecuador’s cities, with the mobsters declaring: ‘You declared war, you will get war’.

The gangs unleashed their fury after President Daniel Noboa on Monday declared a countrywide state of emergency and nightly curfew following the escape of Jose Adolfo Macias, aka ‘Fito’ – leader of Ecuador’s biggest gang Choneros – on Sunday. 

In the days since, the gangs stormed the state-owned TC Television in the port city of Guayaquil with harrowing video showing them holding terrified staff hostage for hours while pointing shotguns at their heads as they pleaded ‘please don’t shoot’. 

Further terrifying footage showed three kidnapped officers sitting at the ground with a gun pointed at them as one visibly terrified policeman read a statement that read: ‘You declared war, you will get war. You declared a state of emergency. We declare police, civilians and soldiers to be the spoils of war.’ 

The statement added anyone found on the street after 11pm ‘will be executed’. 

In response to the horrific violence, President Noboa has ordered the army to ‘neutralise’ criminal gangs after the gangsters declared war, with the violence threatening to spill over into Peru.

Eight people were killed and three wounded in the attacks in Guayaquil, and two officers were ‘viciously murdered by armed criminals’ in the nearby town of Nobol, police said last night. 

Long a peaceful haven sandwiched between top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has seen violence explode in recent years as rival gangs with links to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.

And the escape of Adolfo ‘Fito’ Macías, 44, the leader of Los Choneros gang, from his cell in a low security prison on Sunday has sparked yet more violence after the government declared a state of emergency and nightly curfew as they launched a manhunt for the gang leader. 

In response to the state of emergency, gangs retaliated by taking police officers hostage, rampaging through a university and storming a TV studio. 

Masked men armed with pistols and bombs broke onto the set of the TC Television network during a live broadcast on Tuesday, unleashing 30 minutes of threats and terror. 

First, a man with a pistol appeared in the middle of the public TV station’s live transmission, followed by a second man with a shotgun, then a third and more. With the show’s ‘After the News’ title behind them, station employees were brought onto the set and ordered to lie down. 

Screams could be heard followed by the sound of gunshots in the terrifying footage. 

‘We are on air, so you know that you cannot play with the mafia,’ one of the assailants is heard saying. 

Hooded attackers fired gunshots during the live TC broadcast as a woman could be heard pleading: ‘Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot.’

The intruders forced terrified crew onto the ground and a person could be heard screaming as the studio lights went out but the broadcast continued.

Alina Manrique, the head of news for TC Television, was ordered to get on the floor.

‘They aimed the gun at my head,’ she said. ‘I thought about my entire life, about my two children.’

Manrique said some of the assailants ran from the studio and tried to hide when they realized they were surrounded by police.

‘I am still in shock,’ she said. ‘Everything has collapsed. – All I know is that it’s time to leave this country and go very far away.’

Police entered the studio after about 30 minutes of chaos and authorities later said that all the masked intruders had been arrested, 13 in all, and would be charged with terrorism. No one was hurt in the attack.

President Noboa, 36, who was elected last year on a pledge to fight drug-related violence, later ordered the military operations against gangs he described as ‘terrorist organisations and belligerent non-state actors.’

Afterwards, the head of the Armed Forces Joint Command said the attacks were the gangs’ reactions to the government’s moves against them.

‘They have unleashed a wave of violence to frighten the population,’ Adm. Jaime Vela told journalists, describing the attacks as ‘unprecedented’ in Ecuador’s history.

The government has said at least 30 attacks have taken place since authorities announced that Los Choneros gang leader Macías 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.  

Ecuadorean officials on Tuesday announced that another gang leader, Fabricio Colón Pico of the Los Lobos group, had escaped from a prison in the town of Riobamba. Colón Pico was captured on Friday as part of a kidnapping investigation and has also been accused of trying to murder one of the nation’s lead prosecutors.

Authorities reported multiple explosions and cars set alight on Tuesday, including in the capital Quito, and said seven police officers had been kidnapped.

There was panic on the streets, with shops and businesses in various cities closing early and residents rushing home as face-to-face classes were suspended nationwide until Friday.

Brian Nichols, the top US diplomat for Latin America, said Washington was ‘extremely concerned’ by the violence and kidnappings, and pledged to provide assistance and ‘remain in close contact’ with Noboa’s team.

Peru on Tuesday put its border with Ecuador under a state of emergency, with the government deploying special forces to the border. 

China’s embassy and consulates in Ecuador announced on Wednesday that services to the public were suspended.

‘The reopening to the public will be announced in due course,’ the embassy said in a statement shared on Chinese social media.

Chile, Colombia and Brazil sent messages of support for Noboa on Tuesday.

A manhunt is under way for Fito, who had been serving a 34-year sentence for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.

The 44-year-old is believed to have escaped just hours before police arrived to conduct an inspection of the Guayaquil prison where he was held.

On Tuesday, officials said another narco boss – Los Lobos leader Fabricio Colon Pico – also escaped since his arrest last Friday for alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate Ecuador’s attorney general.

Unrest has broken out at several penitentiaries, and on Tuesday the SNAI prisons authority said 125 guards and 14 administrative officers were being held by inmates in five cities.

Unverified videos circulating on social media purported to show captives armed with knives executing at least two guards. The SNAI has not commented on the images.

The security forces in turn have sent out videos of numerous prison raids since Sunday, with hundreds of inmates amassed in courtyards in their underwear, hands on their heads.

Noboa had vowed on Monday to ‘not negotiate with terrorists nor rest until we return peace to all Ecuadorans.’

Drug violence has taken a heavy toll on the South American country since it became a key stop on the US- and Europe-bound cocaine trade.

The murder rate quadrupled from 2018 to 2022 and a record 220 tons of drugs were seized last year.

Since February 2021, clashes between prisoners have left more than 460 dead, many beheaded or burnt alive.