Fear grips Ecuador after surge in cartel violence

Fallout from attack on TV station as residents live in terror

- LAUREN CROSBY MEDLICOTT

Carla Angelica Bohorquez Luque arrived home from working as a psychologist in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, when she heard her neighbour scream: “They have taken over Channel 10! They have kidnapped them!” The channel was the state-owned TC Television. Luque ran upstairs to watch the unfolding crisis on her television with her mother, masked men waved guns and explosives during a live broadcast in the studio.

“They had several men with cameras lying on the floor,” the 35-year-old told The Independent. “They were pointing machine guns at them.” It was part of a surge in violence across the country, which has seen the escape of two gang leaders from prison, hundreds of prison guards taken hostage and explosions in several cities. In response, President Daniel Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency and ordered the military to “neutralise” 22 armed groups which he redefined as terrorist organisations. Days after the TV station attack, the prosecutor investigating the incident, Cesar Suarez, was shot dead.

Even though Luque would consider herself relatively unflappable, she felt lost thinking about the impact of the TV station attack and the wider violence could have on her family, particularly being pregnant.

“I felt like I was in a movie,” she says of that day. “I knew I was protected inside my house, but my brother, niece, and husband were outside running the risk of a stray bullet. When my husband managed to get back home, I burst into tears. I felt like I could breathe again.”

The violence started when it was discovered on 7 January that gang kingpin Adolfo Macías otherwise known as Fito, leader of Los Choneros, who was supposed to be moved to a different prison, was not in his cell.