Prison breaks, TV attack and a state of emergency – what’s really going on in Ecuador?

Ecuador’s president has declared a state of emergency after a high-profile gang leader escaped prison and armed gunmen stormed a live television broadcast.

Since the jail break on Sunday, brutal violence has swept the nation.

Riots have erupted in prisons, police officers have been taken hostage, and explosions have thundered across cities.

The wave of violence comes as gangs revolt against government plans to crack down on organised crime.

In one video circulating on social media, a kidnapped police officer is forced to read out a statement from one gang with a gun pointed at his head.

‘You declared war, you will get war. You declared a state of emergency. We declare police, civilians and soldiers to be the spoils of war,’ the police officer reads in the clip.

Here’s everything we know so far.

Why is Ecuador in a state of emergency?

The leader of the powerful Los Choneros gang, Adolfo ‘Fito’ Macías, escaped from his jail cell on Sunday.

Another high-profile prison break occurred on Tuesday, when the leader of the Los Lobos gang, Fabrico Colon Pico, escaped with around 40 other prison inmates in the city of Riobamba.

Pico was arrested on Friday for his alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, declared a 60-day state of emergency following the prison breaks and imposed a nightly curfew from 11pm to 5am.

Following the attack on the TV station, Noboa said that the country was facing an ‘internal armed conflict’ and identified 22 gangs as terrorist organisations.

‘I have ordered the armed forces to carry out military operations to neutralise these groups,’ Noboa said in a statement.

Ecuador’s armed forces chief Jaime Vela said he will not back down or negotiate.

‘Good, justice and order cannot ask permission or bow their heads to terrorists,’ he added.

Peru has also declared a state of emergency along its border with Ecuador.

What happened at the TV station?

Armed men stormed a live TV news broadcast in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, on Tuesday at around 2pm local time. The masked men wielded machine guns, pistols and sticks of dynamite.

Staff were forced to lie on the floor. Some managed to hide in bathrooms and others sent messages to group chats with pleas for help, according to El Universo.

One message read: ‘They want to kill us all. Help us, please.’

The programme was broadcast for around 15 minutes after the raid before transmission was cut. A cameraman was shot in the leg and another employee’s arm was broken.

Police said 13 gunmen were arrested.

Who is Adolfo ‘Fito’ Macías?

Adolfo Macías, who is also known by the alias Fito, is the leader of the Los Choneros gang.

He took control of the gang in 2020 when its former leader, Jorge Luis Zambrano, was killed. The killing led to the gang splintering into several groups.

Macías was sentenced for 34 years in 2011 for drug trafficking, murder and organised crime. He previously escaped in 2013.

Who is Adolfo Macías’s daughter, ‘Queen’ Michelle Macías?

The daughter of Adolfo Macías, Michelle, was kidnapped along with her friend María Villavicencio in 2019.

The pair, who were 19 and 21 at the time, were forced into a car by armed men in the coastal town of Manta. They were held for four days.

‘They aimed [guns] at us. I thought they were going to kill us,’ Michelle told reporters after her release.

The kidnappings were a direct order from Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera, the leader rival gang Jalisco New Generation, according to Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio.

Jalisco New Generation and Macías’s gang, Los Choneros, have a long-standing battle for control of the Litorial Penitentiary in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest prison. A week prior to Michelle Macías’s kidnapping, 68 inmates were killed in the prison.

What else has happened in Ecuador?

At least ten people have been killed since Macías’ prison break on Sunday.

Gang members targeted police officers and prison guards. Seven police officers were kidnapped in the capital Quito, the city of Machala and the Los Rios province. The three officers kidnapped in Machala have since been freed.

Riots have broken out in at least six jails and some reports suggest that prisoners have executed prison guards.

There have been several explosions across the country. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosions. There were also reports of incidents at five hospitals in Quito, but police and soldiers have since restored order.

Quito resident Mario Urena told Reuters there is ‘chaos’ and a ‘nervousness’ in the city.

Why has there been a rise in violence?

There were 8,008 violent deaths in the country in 2023, nearly double the number in 2022. The murder rate has risen by almost 500% since 2016.

Feuds between local and foreign drug cartels has led to a rise in violence in the country, with clashes between rival gangs taking place in prisons. More than 400 inmates have died since 2021, according to official figures.

There’s also been a rise in the number of kidnappings. British businessman Colin Armstrong, 78, was kidnapped by members of the Los Tiguerones gang in December along with his girlfriend Katherine Paola Santos. Armstrong was rescued four days later.

President Noboa plans to build new maximum security prisons and transfer high-profile inmates. The government said that the recent violence is a reaction to these plans.

What is the political situation in Ecuador?

President Daniel Noboa was elected in October. At 35, the centre-right politician is Ecuador’s youngest ever president.

The election was marred by violence. One presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, who had repeatedly spoken out against gang violence, was assassinated at a campaign rally in August. He was shot in the head as he got into a car.

Is it safe to travel to Ecuador? Foreign Office advice revealed

The Ecuadorean Ministry of Tourism has recommended all tourists stay in their accommodation until further notice and only move for essential travel.

The British Foreign Office has warned against all but essential travel to the north of the country along the border with Colombia.