The president declared the country in a “state of internal armed conflict” in the face of violence carried out by drug traffickers.
After three days of an unprecedented security crisis, Ecuador is in a “state of internal armed conflict” according to the head of state Daniel Noboa. He orders the “neutralization“criminal groups linked to drug trafficking and gives a complete list. The president also decrees”the mobilization of the armed forces and the police__to guarantee sovereignty and national integrity“.
Tuesday afternoon, the crisis reached a new level as armed and hooded men took journalists and employees of a public television channel hostage in Guayaquil, in the southwest of Ecuador.
The scene was broadcast live for a few minutes, before the police intervened. The police claim to have arrested all the attackers.
For three days, the situation has been increasingly chaotic in the country, including the escape of two dangerous gang leaders and numerous mutinies in prisons, where at least two guards were murdered. Several police officers have been kidnapped in the country.
A state of emergency was declared for sixty days.
Ecuador has become a logistics center for shipping cocaine produced in Peru and Colombia to the United States and Europe.
The country is ravaged by the violence of the criminal gangs who manage this drug trafficking and homicides have increased by almost 800% in five years. President Daniel Noboa was elected with a promise to restore security