Armed bandits stormed the studio of TC Televisión, one of Ecuador’s largest television channels, during a live broadcast on Tuesday, leading the country’s president to declare a state of “internal armed conflict” amid a series of seemingly coordinated attacks across the South American country.
During a news programme El Noticiero, several men armed with pistols, rifles, machine guns, grenades and dynamite stormed the studio. While the cameras were broadcasting live, several staff members were seen falling to the floor and someone could be heard shouting “Don’t shoot!” before the signal was interrupted.
TC Television news executive Alina Manrique said she was in the control room, across from the studio, when a group of masked men burst into the building. One of the men put a gun to her head and told her to lie down on the floor, she told The Associated Press. Manrique said in a phone interview:
“I am still in shock. Everything has collapsed … All I know is that it’s time to leave this country, and go very far away.”
According to police chief César Zapata, police seized weapons and explosives that were in the possession of the militants. Thirteen people were also reportedly arrested. César Zapata added:
“This is an act that should be considered as a terrorist act.”
The shocking scenes of the bandits’ attack, shown live on television, came as a wave of terror sweeps across Ecuador amid fresh outbreaks of violence in the country’s prisons.
Unconfirmed reports said a mob of armed men stormed a university in Guayaquil and looted in the centre of Quito, while videos emerged on social media showing the lynching of prison guards taken hostage by inmates.
On Tuesday night, Peru declared a state of emergency on its northern border with Ecuador. Prime Minister Alberto Otarola said an unspecified number of army units would be deployed to support the police, while the country’s defence and interior ministers would also go to the border.
Shortly after the attack on the TV station, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa issued a decree declaring 20 drug trafficking gangs as terrorist groups and authorising the Ecuadorian military to “neutralise” the criminal groups “within the framework of international humanitarian law”. The move comes just a day after Noboa declared a state of emergency over the escape from prison of the country’s most dangerous gang leader.
As thousands of soldiers and police searched for Adolfo Macias, nicknamed Fito – the convicted leader of the powerful Los Choneros drug gang – chaos broke out inside and outside prisons in a clear show of force by organised crime groups.
Noboa, elected to the presidency in October on a promise to end violent crime, declared a two-month state of emergency on Monday. He also promised to regain control of the country’s prisons, which have repeatedly been the scene of brutal violence between rival drug gangs that has left more than 420 inmates dead since 2021.
