HOODED gunmen have hijacked a live television broadcast in Ecuador and threatened staff members.
Live television footage broadcast from Ecuador’s TC station in Guayaquil showed hooded gunmen storming the set, waving guns and threatening people.
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Shots could be heard as some of the gunmen told staff members to lie on the ground.
Some members of the group were also seen pointing at the cameras and shouting “no police”, before the live feed was cut.
Another gunman was reportedly heard saying: “We are on the air so that they know we do not play with the mafia”.
While a hooded man has been alleged to have left a stick of dynamite in the television station’s reception area.
Specialised police units from both Quito and Guayaquil were quickly deployed to the scene.
They have since shared footage of blood on the floor of the television studio, alongside images of some of the arrests that they made.
Police commander Csar Zapata told the TV channel Teleamazonas that officers seized the guns and explosives the gunmen had with them. He didn’t say how many people were arrested.
But he did say that this is an act that should be considered as a terrorist act.
Armed men have also entered the University of Guayaquil, attempting to kidnap students, and Teodoro Maldonado hospital, where they have been attempting to kidnap doctors.
Shots have been heard in both locations, and an evacuation order has been issued at the Carondelet presidential complex in Quito.
These shocking incidences come just a day after Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa had to declare a state of emergency after a notorious drug kingpin escaped from a maximum security jail on Sunday.
Several police officers were kidnapped immediately after the announcement, and there have been a series of explosions across the country.
The security situation has now deteriorated to the point where President Noboa has declared the existence of an internal armed conflict in Ecuador.
In his statement he has provided a decree for the direct intervention of the Armed Forces.
“I have just signed the state of exception decree so that the Armed Forces have all the political and legal support in their actions,” Noboa said on Instagram.
Adolfo Macias, the leader of the Los Choneros gang, had been serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking and murder.
Los Choneros is one of the Ecuadorian gangs that the authorities have deemed responsible for the spike in violence over the last year – which saw the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
It has also been claimed that Los Choneros has links with Mexico’s infamous Sinaloa cartel.
The whereabouts of Adolfo Macias remains unclear, but two prison guards have had charged filed against them.
The TV studio raid is being blamed on another gang called Los Tiguerones which has been linked to the kidnap of British millionaire businessman Colin Armstrong last month.
The 78-year-old former honorary consul for Guayaquil, president of Ecuadorian agricultural distribution firm Agripac, was released on December 20.
He had been taken hostage four days earlier with his Colombian girlfriend Katherine Paola Santos after being was snatched from a farm he owned. Nine suspects were subsequently arrested.
Noboa was elected in October on the promise to crack down on violent crime. He has vowed to take back control of the country’s prisons and the country’s streets.
His updated state of emergency has recognised several criminal gangs, like Los Choneros, as terrorist groups, and has ordered the armed forces to quell them.
The decree has allowed Noboa to set a national curfew, from 11pm to 5am, which he has coupled with military patrols – on the streets and inside prisons.
He has adamantly stated that he will not negotiate with “terrorists”, that he won’t stop until he brings back peace to all Ecuadorians, and that his government had decided to confront crime.
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Neha Dhillon
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