Ecuador’s president declared an “internal armed conflict” on Tuesday afternoon after scores of gunmen took over public spaces throughout the country, including a live TV broadcast that showed chilling images of men donning balaclavas and carrying rifles.
Cameras captured the hooded men forcing the staff of TC Television to get on the ground, holding journalists at gunpoint as screams and gunshots were heard in the background.
Footage of the takeover has since gone viral online, and reporters held hostage inside the Guayaquil-based station flooded messaging groups with pleas for help, reported El Universo.
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“They want to kill us all,” one message reportedly read. “Help us, please.”
The assailants, at least 13 of whom were escorted out by police, reportedly brought blocks of dynamite into the TV network’s building. Before the live broadcast was cut from the air, one person could be heard yelling in Spanish, “no police.”
Ecuador’s national police wrote in a statement that its specialized units were deployed to the site and arrested “several subjects.” Photos of the alleged suspects showed them lying on the ground with zip ties on their wrists.
Ecuador has been roiled by recent explosions, police kidnappings, and prison riots since Monday, when the high-profile gang leader Adolfo “Fito” Macias escaped from a prison in Guayaquil, the country’s largest city.
President Daniel Noboa declared a nationwide state of emergency after the escape, but its done little to stop unrest throughout the South American nation of 18 million.
Since Monday, the national police said at least seven of its officers have been kidnapped in three different cities. Authorities have shared previously that Ecuador’s violence largely stems from rival criminal organizations, who’ve turned their hatred for one another into spectacles that have endangered Ecuador’s public.
The rival groups are the root behind Ecuador’s rising prison violence in recent years, which has seen 420 inmates be murdered since 2021.
It’s unclear if anyone was injured in the attack at TC Television.
Other places hit by violence included Esmeraldas, in the northwest of the country, where a pair of vehicles were set on fire and caused a gas station to erupt in flames.
In Quito, the country’s capital, police reported there was an explosion at a pedestrian bridge. In total, the national police said it responded to “over 20 emergencies” on Monday and Tuesday nationwide, though a casualty count—if there’s one at all—has not been released by authorities.
