In Ecuador, at least 10 people have died as the country is in a state of “internal armed conflict” against drug traffickers.

International – Images of armed violence are mounting from Ecuador. Adolfo Macias Alias, the leader of the country's largest gang, was arrested three days after escaping from prison. Fito”, Criminal gangs are trying to impose their law on the country. Officials indicated this Wednesday, January 10, that according to initial estimates, this unprecedented security crisis has already caused at least 10 deaths.

Ecuador's president, Daniel Noboa, declared his country a state this Tuesday. Civil Armed Conflict » and ordered “ Neutralization » Drug traffickers. In an official decree, he ordered “ Mobilization and intervention of armed forces and national police (…) to guarantee sovereignty and national integrity against organized crime, terrorist organizations and non-state militias”.

A report on Tuesday said a dramatic hostage situation happened live on a TV set in Guayaquil. You can watch it in our video above the article. The intervention of the police managed to save the journalists and the staff of the channel in time. No one is believed to have been killed or injured in the raid, and 13 attackers have been arrested, police said.

Execution scenes in prisons

Hostages and riots took place especially in prisons Phyto », he is still wanted by the authorities, but also one of the leaders of Los Lobos, another powerful drug trafficking gang. Ecuador's prison administration (SNAI) said in a statement that 139 prison guards are currently being held hostage in five institutions across the country.

Terrifying videos posted on social networks show guards being threatened with knives by masked inmates, and at least two of them being shot and executed. SNAI did not comment on the execution videos. Security forces, for their part, have broadcast strong images of their interventions at various prisons since Sunday, showing hundreds of inmates in their underwear, hands on their heads, pinned to the floor without restraint.

Many police officers were killed and cities came to a standstill

President Daniel Nobo, elected in November on a promise to restore security, declared a state of emergency that would apply to the entire territory for two months. Thus the military has the power to maintain order on the streets (with night curfews) and in prisons. This has clearly had no effect so far: several incidents have been reported across the country, including the abduction of seven police officers.

In the port city of Guayaquil, home to the prison from which he escaped “Phyto”, the police chief indicated that eight people were killed and three injured in the violence. In the major port, plagued by paranoia, many hotels and restaurants are closed, while military vehicles patrol the streets, it said. Even two police officers” Brutally murdered by armed criminals” In the town of Nobol near this area.

Images broadcast on social networks, which are difficult to verify, give an idea of ​​this violence and evoke a sense of chaos gradually settling in some parts of the country: Molotov cocktail attacks, cars set on fire, random shootings of police officers. , scenes of panic… In the capital, Kyoto, overcome by fear, shops and shopping centers were closed early.

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