2024-01-10 10:59:00
The message came through WhatsApp. It was the recording that a friend had just made of her television screen. “This is happening now live on TC,” the text said. I turned on the TV without thinking that the image would continue playing what I had just seen. I also didn’t think I would see a colleague and friend on the floor, crying, being pointed at by a gun, while she begged for her life.
The usual programming of the Ecuadorian channel TC Televisión, located in the north of Guayaquil, was interrupted at 2:18 p.m. this Tuesday when, suddenly, hooded men appeared on camera. They subdued technical personnel and journalists. They told them that they had bombs, they displayed them with pride, they were grenades. They placed a stick of dynamite in the bag of the driver José Luis Calderón, who asked them to please not hurt him. Crying, screams and then gunshots could be heard. The camera focused diffusely.
Read also: Wave of violence in Ecuador: at least eight people died and two were injured in Guayaquil
“We have bombs”: this was the attack by the armed group on the TC television channel. (Video: capture TC Television)
The broadcast lasted almost 20 minutes until it went off the air. Uncertainty invaded all of us viewers. What was it that we had just seen? We were shocked. In the streets of Guayaquil, chaos and panic spread. People were desperate to get home.
Long lines of vehicles were searched in streets and avenues, there were rumors of looting, videos began to circulate on social networks about incidents of insecurity in different parts of the city, a wave of violence was unleashed, police sirens and helicopters could be heard. I tried unsuccessfully to complete a procedure on the penultimate day of my stay in my hometown. The shops closed and a neighbor told me to stay home, while fear reflected in her eyes.
Staff from the TC Televisión channel sitting on the ground in the street after being evacuated after an armed and hooded group broke into the live broadcast in Guayaquil. (Photo: AP/César Muñoz)
I received another video, recorded by one of the terrorists inside the television channel and which was going viral. In the group of people lying on the floor, threatened by weapons, I was able to recognize my friend again, with whom I had shared a coffee in Buenos Aires in September. She cried scared, asked them not to shoot and told her children that she loved them. My heart shook.
Two hours after the incident, the hooded men were neutralized by the police and the arrest of 13 people who were linked to the Tiguerones gang was confirmed. This commando coup occurs in the midst of the state of emergency that Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa decreed on Monday. The decision was made after the escape of two criminal leaders from prison and the acts of violence recorded in the country’s prisons. The measure includes the restriction of circulation between 11pm and 5am.
A group of hooded men entered TC Televisión, in Guayaquil, and took the staff hostage. (Photo: capture TC Television)
On Tuesday afternoon, Noboa declared an internal armed conflict and identified 22 transnational organized crime groups as terrorist organizations. The decree orders the armed forces to carry out military operations to neutralize them.
There was only one minor injury in the canal. My friend is physically fine. I can’t imagine the emotional consequences. However, on an avenue in the north of the city a young man was killed by a stray bullet. There were also two deaths in an armed attack outside a shopping center.
What will happen in Ecuador? It is the question that haunts all of us who are on this earth. And to those who are outside of it. The streets of Guayaquil looked empty in the last hours of Tuesday. The people took shelter. The authorities ask people to stay in their homes. For how long? When will we be able to walk with peace of mind again? We still don’t have answers for that.
The streets of Guayaquil are militarized (Photo: AFP)
Guayaquil: a city walled by insecurity
Guayaquil has become a walled city. Streets closed with bars placed by citizens, surveillance cameras, alarms and private guards are part of the daily landscape. Walking through the most populated city in Ecuador is walking with uncertainty, not knowing if one day you will be kidnapped for ransom, assaulted, or hit by a stray bullet.
Read also: Day of extreme violence: Ecuador deepened its internal crisis and showed the growing power of drug trafficking
In the metropolitan area, seven people were murdered a day in 2023, according to figures from the National Police. Neighbors prefer not to go out at night, they feel safer in their homes and avoid going to public places. The stories of incidents of insecurity multiply.
What happened this Tuesday on TC Television is only the reflection of a crisis that has been developing by drug trafficking gangs and criminal organizations that impose a new wave of terror in Ecuador. The same ones that now put in check the government of Daniel Noboa, who just assumed the presidency of the country at the end of November.
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