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Ecuador descended into chaos this week as a powerful gang leader disappeared from jail, uprisings broke out in several prisons, and guards were kidnapped and threatened by inmates in what has quickly escalated into a major crisis for the South American country.
The unrest continued on Tuesday afternoon, when masked men stormed a television station in Guayaquil, the nation’s largest city, taking anchors and staff hostage and exchanging gunfire with the police as cameras rolled. The standoff ended after the police subdued and arrested the intruders.
Ecuador descended into chaos this week as a powerful gang leader disappeared from jail, uprisings broke out in several prisons, and guards were kidnapped and threatened by inmates in what has quickly escalated into a major crisis for the South American country.
The unrest continued on Tuesday afternoon, when masked men stormed a television station in Guayaquil, the nation’s largest city, taking anchors and staff hostage and exchanging gunfire with the police as cameras rolled. The standoff ended after the police subdued and arrested the intruders.
The president, Daniel Noboa, declared an internal armed conflict on Tuesday, and ordered the armed forces to “neutralize” two dozen gangs, which he described as “terrorist organizations,” according to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Mr. Noboa, who has prioritized restoring security to a country awash in violence fueled by a flourishing drug trade, had earlier declared a state of emergency and deployed more than 3,000 police and military officers to search for the escaped gang leader, Adolfo Macías.
The 60-day declaration imposes a nationwide overnight curfew and allows the military to patrol streets and take control of the jails.
“The time is over when drug-trafficking convicts, hit men and organized crime dictate to the government what to do,” Mr. Noboa said in a video announcing the move on Monday, adding that it was necessary for security forces to take control of Ecuador’s prison system.
Mr. Macías, the head of Los Choneros gang and better known as “Fito,” disappeared on Sunday from an overcrowded prison in the coastal city of Guayaquil, from which he has long overseen his group’s operations.
The government had ordered the transfer of high-profile convicts, including Mr. Macías, from the cells where they have been running their criminal rings to a maximum-security facility. That decision, prison experts said, may have led to the escape of Mr. Macías and the prison uprisings.
Mr. Noboa has vowed to retake control of the country’s prisons, which have become both gang headquarters and recruiting centers.
Some security experts believe that as many as one-fourth of the country’s 36 prisons are controlled by gangs.
Last week, Mr. Noboa announced that he was seeking to hold a referendum on security measures, including harsher sentences for crimes like murder and arms trafficking, and expanding the role of the military.
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