Quito, Jan 10 (EFE).- The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, spoke publicly on Wednesday for the first time since the outbreak of gang violence to say that his country is in a state of war and that he does not intend to negotiate or give in to “terrorists.”
“We will not negotiate with terrorists,” he said in an interview with Radio Canela.
According to Noboa, who was recently elected after campaigning on a platform of tackling rising crime in the country, the gangs want to spread terror to try to break the President of the Republic, “but they will not succeed.”
He also claimed that the violent actions of the last few days were a response by the criminal gangs to the measures taken by his government to stop the escalation of insecurity that has made Ecuador one of the most violent countries in the world.
On Wednesday, hundreds of soldiers and police were deployed in front of the Ecuadorian government headquarters in Quito.
The sequence of violent events
The crisis began on Sunday with the escape from prison of Adolfo Macías, known as Fito and leader of the criminal gang Los Choneros, who was to be transferred to a maximum security prison and placed in isolation.
On Monday, apparently coordinated riots broke out in at least six prisons across the country, during which several prison guards were taken hostage, this prompted Noboa to declare a national state of emergency.
That night the violence spilled out of the prisons, with reports of explosions, vehicle fires, and kidnappings of police officers throughout the country.
A second gang leader, Fabricio Colón Pico, whom Attorney General Diana Salazar had accused of plotting to kill her, also escaped from prison.
On Tuesday heavily armed men stormed a television station during a live broadcast in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, to demand that the government stop its actions to take back control of the prisons.
Also on Tuesday, Noboa declared that government forces were engaged in an “internal armed conflict” with armed criminal gangs, allowing the government to use the army, not just the police, to fight the criminals.
Ten dead in the chaos
Guayaquil and the surrounding province have been hardest hit by the unrest. At least 10 people were killed there Tuesday night, including two police officers.
As of Wednesday morning, TC Television’s programming had not been restored, with the station broadcasting the message “We will be back soon.
Thirteen people were detained for allegedly taking part in the storming of the TV studio.
In response to the unrest, authorities in neighboring Peru declared a state of emergency and deployed its armed forces to the border with Ecuador.
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