Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared on January 11 that the country was officially in a "state of war".
Days of turmoil have completely destroyed the daily lives of Ecuadorian people. The president said that he would break the net with drug gangs and terrorists: all criminals belonging to organized crime groups will be targeted.
Over the past few days, the chaos in Ecuador has continued to escalate in a horrific manner. Violence that originated in prisons spread to the streets, with drug dealers and terrorists storming society with impunity.
(Location of Ecuador)
Drug lords escaped from prison, prisons around the country responded to collective riots, kidnapped prison guards, massacred, smashed, looted, burned street firefights, and even rushed into TV stations for live terror broadcasts... Ecuador is in lockdown, residents are kept in lockdown, and the whole country is in doom.
The riots began on January 7, when prison guards in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, discovered that Adolfo Macías, the leader of a drug gang that was supposed to be in prison, had suddenly disappeared.
Behind Adolfo is Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, who was previously sentenced to 34 years in prison for murder and drug trafficking. As news of his escape spread, imprisoned gang members across Ecuador began to stir up.
As if there was a force behind the scenes, riots broke out in six prisons across the country almost simultaneously, with videos circulating on social media showing gangsters abducting large numbers of prison guards and forcing them to obey.
Footage of prison guards being executed by gangsters has been circulating on the Internet, and although there is no official confirmation, panic has spread rapidly.
The gangsters informed the president by releasing these clips: if the police or the army try to enter the prison, they will kill all the hostages.
As the riots intensified, on January 8, the President declared a 60-day state of emergency and imposed a curfew on the country.
The army was dispatched to crack down on prison rioters, and gangsters fought back on the streets of Ecuadorian cities, detonating bombs, burning cars and kidnapping police.
(Summary of riots across Ecuador)
Armed groups attacked the University of Guayaquil, abducted students and exchanged fire with the police. Students rushed out of the school gates and fled desperately.
From day to night, there are new attacks almost every moment.
(The sound of gunfire is clearly audible in the nighttime firelight)
Another dramatic event on this day spread terror across the country. The intruder threatened and attacked the employees of TC TV in the city of Guayaquil. As the gunman stormed the studio, the most-watched news program in northeastern Ecuador was being broadcast live.
In the live footage, it can be seen that the masked gangsters knocked the staff to the ground with a pistol. They appeared on the live stream for 15 minutes, flaunting their identities while threatening on-site staff with machetes, explosives and machine guns.
Almost all Ecuadorians witnessed the terrifying scene on television. The unscrupulous behavior of the gangsters seems to send a message to the people of the whole country that the riot has invaded everyone and that the land has been reduced to a land of lawlessness.
The militants who attacked the television station were immediately arrested, but a tense atmosphere of terror had hung over the country.
On 9 January, the President went on to issue a decree stating that the country is in a state of "internal armed conflict" and designating 20 drug trafficking gangs as terrorist organizations, with the military empowered to "eliminate" them within the scope of international humanitarian law.
On January 10, local time, the chaos continued to escalate, directly entering a "state of war".
"We are facing a non-international armed conflict, we are fighting for peace in our country, and we are fighting a terrorist group of more than 20,000 people," the president said. We will not negotiate with terrorists and will definitely not give up until peace is restored. ”
The riots in Ecuador reminded everyone of the darkest days in Mexico and Colombia. To make matters worse, Ecuador has been known as an oasis of peace, with insufficient troops, security services, and resources to deal with the chaos and security threats it currently faces.
There is no end to this riot in sight, and the fighting is left only in fear and lamentation of the Ecuadorian people...
In Latin America, where "heaven is too far and the United States is too close", the situation in many countries has been dominated by drugs. But Ecuador used to be one of the safest countries in Latin America. Its decline is closely related to the Colombian and American drug markets.
In 2009, after Colombia, once a "drug paradise", strengthened security measures at its ports, neighboring Ecuador, especially the port of Guayaquil in Ecuador, became a more important hub for Peruvian and Colombian cocaine shipments to the United States and Europe.
In 2016, the situation deteriorated further when the trade-monopolizing Armed Forces of Colombia signed a peace agreement with the Colombian government, and as soon as the landlord left, outside forces stepped in and began to fill the power vacuum.
As a result, Ecuador has become one of the arenas for many power to compete.
Old Mexican drug cartels such as Sinaloa finance Ecuadorian agents, and the Albanian mafia has taken advantage of the chaos to expand its influence in Ecuador. Coupled with Ecuador's dollarized economy and relaxed visa requirements before 2020, a large number of criminal organizations around the world have been "attracted" and frantically poured into Ecuador.
The events that have taken place in Ecuador in recent years have planted many mines: the power of the government has been weakening year by year, but the militants are becoming more and more well-funded and equipped to outperform the local army.
Because of the mixed forces, each gang wants to rush to the pinnacle of power and stabilize the country's drug trafficking business, so every once in a while, there are prison riots in Ecuador.
In September 2021, 116 prisoners died in a riot at a coastal prison in the western Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil. Six of them were brutally beheaded, while others were mutilated and their hearts gouged out.
In July 2022, only 45 body parts were left after a prison riot in Santo Domingo – so small that it took days for an autopsy to be identified.
Violence gradually spread from gangs to prisons.
In the 2023 presidential election, candidate Villavicencio was directly threatened by Adolfo (the one mentioned at the beginning of the article who disappeared from prison) and was attacked by gunmen during a speech shortly after, killing him instantly.
This year, as the incumbent president has pledged to crack down on all terrorist crimes, drug traffickers and terrorist groups are no longer confined to prison fights, and the flames of hatred have gradually spread throughout the country. In Ecuador, living in peace and normalcy has become a luxury...
(Current President)
Many Central American countries, including Ecuador, have chosen to leave in troubled times. Tens of thousands of people have been uprooted from their homes, and more and more are moving to the United States to seek asylum.
At the peak of illegal immigration, nearly 20,000 underage children crossed the border to the United States in a month. These children, who have lost the protection of their country and their parents, have experienced more tragedies.
Twelve-year-old Noemí committed suicide in a shelter after being violated on the road after two attempts to cross the U.S.-Mexico border on her own.
Fifteen-year-old Alexander fainted while crossing the border desert and died in temperatures as high as 50 degrees.
(Immigrants drop children high up in the border wall)
Even so, there are still those who hold on to the little hope that they can cross the border and leave the land of Latin America to usher in a life free of war and carnage.
In 2019, Ecuador was also one of the safest countries in Latin America, with a homicide rate of 6.7 per 100,000 people, comparable to the United States.
(Beautiful scenery of Ecuador)
In just the past four years, in 2023, Ecuador's homicide rate is expected to more than sixfold to 45 per 100,000 people. According to some data, Ecuador will become the most volatile country in Latin America.
It is not known how the riots that triggered the "state of war" will end, but it is certain that the riots in Ecuador will not be the last. Ecuador will definitely not be the last country destroyed by drugs, how embarrassing.