Ecuador at a standstill as government starts war on drugs after TV attack

Soldiers close a gate at Carondelet government palace, the presidential office and residence in Quito, Ecuador. Credit: AP

Schools are closed, stores are shuttered and people are staying in their homes in Quito, Ecuador, as the government cracks down on drugs gangs following a gun attack on live TV.

Masked, armed men stormed a live television broadcast on Tuesday as violence continues to spread across the country.

The group, wielding explosives and guns, appeared across the televisions of Ecuadorians for 15 minutes on Tuesday as the intruders threatened and assaulted employees of the TC Televisión network's station in the city of Guayaquil.

Nobody was killed and 13 suspects were arrested, but the violent broadcast came as a shock to the region, and elicited a wide-ranging government response.

So how has Ecuador reached this point? ITV News' Charlie Frost explains

President Daniel Noboa issued a decree on Monday saying his country was in an “internal armed conflict” and designated 20 drug-trafficking gangs as terrorist groups that the military had authorisation to “neutralise” within the bounds of international humanitarian law.

“We are in a state of war and we cannot give in,” Mr Noboa said during an interview with national station Radio Canela on Wednesday.

What triggered the chaos?

There is speculation that the incident could be linked to the disappearance of gang leader Adolfo Macías Villamar from La Regional prison on Sunday.

His vanishing led to the declaration of a national state of emergency.

Villamar is the leader of the infamous Los Choneros gang, and is currently serving a 34-year sentence for murder, drug trafficking and organised crime.

Adolfo Macias vanished from prison on Sunday. Credit: AP via Ecuadorian Armed Forces

The 44-year-old became the head of Los Choneros, one of Ecuador's most feared gangs, in 2020. He replaced former gang boss Jorgje Louis Zambrano, who was killed.

The gang made an alliance with Mexico's Sinaloa drugs cartel, which smuggles cocaine through Ecuador's port cities, to the US and Europe.

Last year, Villamar, also known as Fito, was moved to a maximum security prison after a presidential candidate was shot dead while leaving a rally in the capital Quito.

He was one of the few candidates to allege links between organised crime and government officials, and had reported receiving death threats from Fito just days before his murder.

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