Ecuador ordered a military and police crackdown today on criminal groups it labeled as terrorists after hours of violence and attacks, also leading authorities to militarize state-owned energy infrastructure.
Ecuador's president Daniel Noboa signed the decree today declaring 22 domestic gangs as terrorists and authorized the national army and police to "neutralize" them through military operations.
This came after about 30 attacks around the country overnight and early today including car bombs, arson and other violence in main cities including the capital of Quito, key port city of Guayaquil, Cuenca, Esmeraldas and Machala. Drug trafficking rings that oppose Noboa's decision to transfer drug gang leaders from regular security facilities to maximum security prisons are leading the assaults, the government has said.
Noboa on Monday had declared a state of emergency, instituting a curfew at 11pm and allowing soldiers to enter the main prisons despite prisoner protests against this and after initial disturbances.
The violence comes in the wake of the escape of a convicted drug trafficker known as Fito, leader of the Los Choneros group, on 31 December. Convicted to serve 10 years in a regular prison, he fled before he was set to be transferred to the maximum-security La Roca prision in Guayaquil.
Prisoners have rioted and held about 30 prison guards hostage.
This afternoon, 13 armed members of the criminal organization Tiguerones also seized the TC Television news station in Guayaquil and unsuccessfully tried to broadcast a message, police said. Police arrested the suspects within about an hour.
Dozens of private-sector companies and government entities sent their employees home for the day, fearing new attacks.
Soldiers are protecting state-owned Petroecuador's oil facilities, the company said, including three refineries that process around 175,000 b/d, the 360,000 b/d Sote pipeline, and around 40 crude fields in the Amazonian region.
