Criminal gangs declared war on the state on television. A group of masked men interrupted the live broadcast of the Ecuadorian public broadcaster TC Televisión. The attackers, armed with guns, machetes and hand grenades, broke into the station's studios in Guayaquil at around 2:00 p.m. local time, shortly before the start of the news broadcast. The news was expected. The hooded men took the journalists hostage and threatened to blow up the building. One of the live broadcast images, which was most widely reproduced on social networks, shows one of the attackers putting explosives in the presenter's jacket pocket. Jose Luis Calderon. “We’re in the air so you know you’re not playing with the mafia,” shouted a hooded man.
Daniel Noboa He responded in the middle of the broadcast. The young president, who took office at the end of November, presided over an “internal armed conflict” in a country that has been suffering for months from organized crime violence. Noboa again declared war on twenty gangs, to which he gave first and last names in the presidential declaration: Águilas, ÁguilasKiller, Ak47, Caballeros Oscuros, ChoneKiller, Choneros, Covicheros, Cuartel de las Feas, Cubanos, Fatales, Gánster, Kater Piler, Lagartos, Latin Kings, Lobos, Los S.27, Los Tiburones, Mafia 18, Mafia Trébol, Patrones, R7, Tiguerones.
The 35-year-old businessman deployed the armed forces to “neutralize” these groups, just 24 hours after declaring a new 60-day state of emergency after escaping from prison Adolfo Macias, known as Fito, leader of the Los Choneros gang and the most wanted criminal in Ecuador. Armed gangs responded to the government's plans by rioting in six prisons, kidnapping police officers, bombings and setting vehicles on fire.
The chaos in the TC Television studios lasted a few minutes. The statements made by the chain's employees are fragmentary. The informant Bernarda Cevallos shared the statements of a journalist from the channel who was about to go to work when he received a message. “Thank God a friend called me and told me that ten hitmen had invaded. When he arrived, the outside doors were closed. I couldn't believe it, the names could be heard, there were companions on the roof. “This is crazy,” the worker said, according to statements collected by Teleamazonas. “They have colleagues on site and were forced to broadcast live. Outside the channel it's crazy too.
Ecuadorian police, who quickly surrounded the facilities, managed to break into the building and stop the transmission at around 2:45 p.m. local time. “As a result of the intervention at TC Televisión, our police units have so far managed to arrest several people and evidence related to the crime,” the police reported on their X account (formerly Twitter). According to the intelligence director, agents arrested a total of 16 members of the armed commando who had broken into the set minutes earlier. Fausto Iñiguez.
The communications minister, Roberto Izurieta, assures that the authorities are “working in coordination with the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Government on the measures that the security bloc is developing to protect the officials and professionals of TC Television”. According to Izurieta, the vast majority of officers have already been freed from the attackers. Initial indications suggest that they are part of the Los Tiguerones criminal gang.