Drug cartels unleash wave of violence in Ecuador | DW News

Drug cartels unleash wave of violence in Ecuador | DW News

Gangsters have Unleashed a wave of Terror in Ecuador a series of coordinated attacks the government is struggling to contain heavily armed narcos stormed a TV station in Ecuador’s largest city guak keil during a live news show the Mas gunman said they were there to warn ecuadorians not to mess with the Mafia

The attack was Swift and violent they shot one of our cameraman in the leg broke the arm of another one they fired bullets they used their weapons inside one TV station employee who wants to conceal his identity shared what he saw we were in The News Room all of a

Sudden I saw one of my colleagues with a terrified look on his face and he said they’re coming to kill us they’ve already got inside the TV station and then I heard gunshots and a lot of no noise and then what I did was get out of

The area where the editor was I grabbed my phone and I started running like crazy towards safety about 30 minutes after the gunman appeared police could be seen entering the TV station the gangsters were captured but the attack left ecuadorians horrified unbelievable it’s the first time this has happened in this

Country we leave everything to Mr President to the hand of God Mr President you have to put a firm hand on this because if he takes a step back it’ll be worse shops and schools are shut ecuadorians say the prevailing atmosphere is one of fear thousands of law enforcement Personnel are combing

The country for notorious gang boss Alo masas known by his Alias fito he’s the king pin of L cheros one of the most powerful cartels in Ecuador fedo apparently fled a high security jail on Sunday authorities say a second major gang leader and other inmates subsequently escaped from another

Prison penitentiaries have been the focal points of the unrest there have been incidents and at least six prisons around the country police officers guarding the jail have been kidnapped and there are reports of explosions near the homes of Representatives of the judicial system Ecuador has been racked by a

Surge of violence in recent years tied to drug trafficking including homicides and kidnappings the country will be in a state of emergency for 60 days during which officials can suspend people’s rights and mobilize the Army in places including prisons let’s look at this with W grab andorf who’s a political scientist specializing

In Latin American foreign and security policy uh welcome back to DW Ecuador does sound like it’s descending into Anarchy what’s really going on well it is not Anarchy yet but it is on the way into it what we have is we have two different Wars internal Wars

Going on at the same time one is that the two most most important gangs or criminal drug criminals Los cheros he Los colos son it’s are at the moment fighting each other and fighting the government and this situation makes it so difficult for the government really to put up a front against

Them right and and this can’t have come from nowhere so how have they become so powerful they have become so powerful because they have first worked with the Mexican counterparts both of the large groups there are 12 groups all together have connections to their Mexican counterparts and they have kind of

Emancipated from them and are doing the dirty work with regard to Transit of drugs and such things but that’s not only drugs it’s also exhaustion and it’s also cont call of the different prisons in the country and that makes the system so difficult to fight and tell us about

The gang leaders involved especially the this one who’s disappeared well the gang leaders both of them uh uh one is fto the other one is Fabian colon uh are criminals of a long experience they have spent years years in prison already and one must understand that prisons are

Run by those different groups so the prisons are controlled by them and therefore it is rather easy for them to move out of the prisons that’s why the government wants that the military takes over the prisons but the military is not very much enjoying that idea and is kind

Of trying to resist this demand from the president okay okay so we have a situation where open Warfare gangs against gangs gangs against uh the government The Gangs controlling prisons one wonders does the Ecuadorian uh government have the wherewithal have the actual capacity and the non-corrupt will

To actually take these gangs on and win that is actually the point you mentioned the non-corrupt will is necessary part of the government is involved in those type of VI violence or at least in the payments which come along with the violence and the police as well as the military have parts of

Them which are with direct contact with the uh the criminal groups the criminal groups also control parts of the country uh and therefore it is uh a situation where it only will get worse before it can better thank you so much for talking us through that uh but political scientist vul grabador thank

You

Ecuador’s president has declared a state of emergency and warned that the country has entered an “internal armed conflict” due to the drug gang violence. Violence in Ecuador has unleashed a wave of terror among the population.

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