2024-01-11 23:48:35
“The news is back,” the journalist said on the verge of crying. Ecuador’s public channel TC resumed its broadcast this Thursday after an attack with rifles and grenades that the world saw live, in one of the worst drug attacks in the country.
The news program “is back here in the same space where they wanted to silence us,” continued presenter Saskia Bermeo from Guayaquil (southwest), during the first broadcast after Tuesday’s attack.
That day, hooded and armed men broke in during the noon program, subdued the journalists and injured two workers, while viewers heard the shots, screams and cries live. There were no deaths and 13 perpetrators were arrested.
“We now return stronger and more committed (…) to the people who wake up with our signal to go out and build a better Ecuador,” added the journalist from the same set that was bloodied days before.
More than twenty drug gangs, made up of some 20,000 members, have spread terror in the country since Sunday in retaliation for the government’s firm-handed policies to subdue them: riots in prisons, 178 prison officials held by prisoners, police officers kidnapped , attacks with explosives and burning vehicles.
But the new president, Daniel Noboa, warned that he will not give in and will relentlessly confront the wave of violence that has left 16 dead and a climate of panic in the population.
“They aroused our anger”
The current crisis began on Sunday, when one of the most feared bosses disappeared from his prison in Guayaquil (southwest): Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito”, head of the country’s main criminal gang known as Los Choneros and accused of having threatened the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio days before his assassination.
On Wednesday night the death toll increased to 16 after a fire arson in a nightclub in the Amazon that left two dead and nine injured, in an attack that the police described as “terrorist.”
Ecuador had managed to avoid drug violence for a long time, despite being located between the largest cocaine producers, Peru and Colombia. But in the last five years, the homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants rose from 6 to 46 in 2023 and the country gained prominence on the world map of drug trafficking.
Although activity resumed slightly in the main cities, many businesses remain closed, public transportation runs less frequently than usual, universities and schools attend classes virtually, and teleworking prevails.
More than 22,400 soldiers are deployed, there are patrols by land, air and sea, searches on the streets, operations in prisons and curfews.
Misinformation and confusion
Guayaquil gradually resumed its activity this Thursday. The main avenue of the port city was seen without its usual traffic jams, although the almost total confinement of the previous day eased.
“We are afraid, afraid that the least expected (moment) they will do the same thing again,” Inés Macas, a 69-year-old housewife who reported looting in Quito, told AFP.
Videos circulate daily on social networks about cruel murders of members of the public force, alleged robberies and attacks.
Misinformation and panic among the population has caused confusion.
In an interview with Radio Sucesos, Pabel Muñoz, mayor of Quito, pointed out that in the capital “there were 53 emergency alerts of which 18 have been true.”
The police have denied the veracity of viral images.
Hundreds of soldiers and police are searching for Fito, while a state of emergency is in force throughout the country, including prisons, and a six-hour curfew, starting at 11:00 p.m. local time (04:00 GMT).
On Tuesday, another criminal boss escaped from prison, Fabricio Colón Pico, one of the leaders of Los Lobos, accused of kidnapping and planning the murder of the attorney general.
In a video addressed to the president, the capo said he had escaped because “they were going to kill him” and promised to turn himself in if his life was guaranteed.
“Terrorists must be treated as terrorists (…) If they want to surrender, no one is preventing it,” Noboa responded.
#news #Ecuadorian #recovers #armed #attack