#Record My 2024 ##厄瓜多尔7名警察在执勤中遭绑架#
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According to a report by Reuters and other foreign media on January 10, Ecuador, China's important partner in Latin America, is currently facing a serious "crisis of civil strife".
The cause of this civil unrest was a large-scale "prison riot". Just a few days ago, Adolfo Macias, the leader of a criminal gang in the country, managed to escape from a low-level prison where he was serving his sentence, and organized riots broke out in at least six prisons in the country. A criminal group of large numbers of prisoners managed to take control of the prison and took at least 150 prison guards and prison staff hostage to confront local law enforcement and the military. Although some of the prisoners tried to escape but were captured, the current "hostage crisis" is not over.
(Ecuadorian plainclothes police are besieging the prison)
However, this was only the beginning of a large-scale civil unrest – after a riot broke out in the prison, more armed bandits began to cause trouble in Ecuador. To date, there have been at least seven police kidnappings and five bombings in various parts of the country that have resulted in no casualties, clearly demonstrating to the Government.
And the worst nature is the attack on the country's television station by armed bandits: on the 9th local time, Ecuador's public television station was attacked by a group of armed men. The thugs stormed the live broadcast room of the station, pointed guns to the heads of the anchors and staff, and threatened them to "crouch against the wall", all of which were broadcast live to the world......
(Ecuadorian television was attacked by bandits during the live broadcast)
In response to this tense situation, the new president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, who has only been in office for a few months, officially signed an executive decree a few days ago, declaring a state of emergency throughout Ecuador, which will last for 60 days. During this period, the army will be stationed in cities and government facilities to patrol and maintain curfews to deter criminal gangs from committing atrocities.
In addition, he said in the decree that Ecuador is currently facing a crisis of "internal armed conflict", and that he has designated at least 22 gangs, drug trafficking and violent gangs in the country as "non-state belligerents" and authorized the Ecuadorian military to use military force to "eliminate these groups within the framework of international humanitarian law". In addition, he made it clear that the Government of Ecuador would not negotiate with the terrorists, but would find ways to eliminate them. This seems to mean that he has the heart to take tougher measures against the criminal syndicate.
(President Noboa)
Political analyst Will Freeman said it was the "historical highest" of violent crime in Ecuador, and while the country's gangs had previously tried to assassinate a presidential candidate and detonated a car bomb in front of a government building, the groups had never had the power and organization to launch such large-scale mass violence.
This may be directly related to President Noboa's "iron fist policy", which is reported to be an iron-fisted attack on the country's many gangs and drug trafficking gangs, including the construction of newer high-level prisons, the establishment of new "specialized anti-terrorism and anti-crime security forces" and targeted arrest programs. This may have galvanized these criminal gangs, who hoped to use a violent insurgency to broker a compromise in Noboa, just as Colombian drug traffickers forced the Colombian government to compromise.
(Ecuadorian soldiers patrol the streets)
It is worth mentioning that Ecuador is an important partner of China in Latin America. Since the 80s, China has provided Ecuador with a large number of low-interest loans and aid, which has helped Ecuador maintain its international financial credibility on several occasions, and Ecuador has reached a number of agreements with China, including oil development and trade.
(China is an important partner of Ecuador)
If the Ecuadorian government is unable to control the civil unrest, there is no doubt that this will have a serious negative impact on the multi-sector cooperation between China and Ecuador, especially in the area of economic development that Ecuador urgently needs. Given China's previous security cooperation with Ecuador, including helping Ecuador upgrade its modern security management system, there is a view that if the situation deteriorates to the point where it becomes unmanageable, China may consider sending humanitarian aid to Ecuador – at the invitation of the Ecuadorian authorities, of course. Whether the situation deteriorates to that point depends on whether President Noboa's "iron fist" can succeed in suppressing these criminal gangs in a short period of time and bringing calm back to the streets of Ecuador.