Wednesday, January 10 2024 – 13:39 WIB
Ecuador – Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa ordered a military operation, on Tuesday, January 9, 2024, against the country’s powerful criminal groups after gunmen stormed a television studio and gangsters threatened to execute security forces and civilians.
Noboa stated that his country was in a state of internal armed conflict, just hours after the gangsters declared war.
Daniel Noboa, the youngest president in Ecuador’s history
The horror in Ecuador is increasing because it was triggered by the escape from prison of one of Ecuador’s most powerful crime bosses. Ecuador has long been a haven of peace flanked by top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru.
Ecuador has also seen violence erupt in recent years, as rival gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.
“I have ordered the armed forces to carry out military operations to neutralize these groups,” wrote Noboa on social media, quoted from The New Arab, Wednesday, January 10 2024.
His comments came shortly after assailants carrying rifles and grenades stormed the TC television studios in the port city of Guayaquil. The intruders forced the frightened crew to duck, and someone could be heard screaming in pain as the studio lights went out, but the live broadcast continued.
“Please, they are coming to kill us. God don’t let this happen. The criminals are in the air,” said a TC employee.
After about 30 minutes of chaos, officers are seen entering the studio while someone then shouts that they have an injured colleague.
Earlier, on Tuesday, gangsters kidnapped police officers and detonated explosives in several cities in response to the 60-day state of emergency and curfew announced by Noboa.
A group of people carrying weapons and stormed a television studio in Ecuador
For your information, Noboa was elected president in October, with a promise to fight drug-related crime and violence, which is rampant in the South American country.
He also vowed to take the fight to drug cartels after the leader of a cartel, Jose Adolfo Macias, known as “Fito,” escaped from prison earlier in the day.
2024-01-10 06:39:09
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