Ecuador’s drug lords launched a brutal campaign after the government declared war on the cartels. Drug boss “Fito” apparently escaped during a prison transfer.
Hundreds of soldiers patrol the streets of Ecuador’s capital, Quito, and a state of emergency has been declared in the country.
Fear has been spread especially by the attack on a local TV station in the port city of Guayaquil in southern Ecuador on Tuesday.
Masked gunmen rushed into the studio, forced the staff to the floor and fired shots. The live TV broadcast was interrupted. According to local media, some of the attackers were only 16 years old.
– We are not safe. Anything can happen, said the resident of Quito Luis Chiligano for news agency AFP. He works as a security guard, but said he stays at home.
– Criminals are better armed, he added.
By criminals, he refers to members of the drug cartels, against whom Ecuador now has the country’s president According to Daniel Noboa at war.
The 36-year-old Noboa, who has been in office for less than two months, has ordered the armed forces to destroy the gangs, which include an estimated 20,000 members.
Who is “Fito”?
The latest crisis erupted when it emerged on Sunday that one of Ecuador’s most influential drug lords, “Phyto” or José Adolfo Macías had apparently escaped from prison.
After the escape, the Ecuadorian government declared a state of emergency and sent police and soldiers into the prisons to conduct major raids. The deployment of soldiers, in turn, triggered attacks carried out by the cartels, such as the invasion of the TV station in Guauaquil.
In 2011, Macías was sentenced to no less than 34 years in prison, but his prison conditions have been described as comfortable. He has even flaunted his privileges by showing off his cell in social media videos.
According to the authorities, he has even organized parties at La Regional prison in Guayaquil. Among other things, alcohol and fighting cocks have been delivered to him in prison.
44-year-old Macías was born on the coast in the city of Manta, where the influential Los Choneros drug gang is also from. Macías, bearded, long-haired and solidly built, is now the leader of the gang.
Little is known about Macías’ childhood and background, but he is believed to be the mastermind behind several kidnappings, executions and car bombings. More than 30 criminal charges have been brought against him.
According to the mother, however, Macías is innocent.
– He is accused of anything, from drugs to stealing chickens. He is wanted in charge of absolutely everything that happens in Manta, mother Marisol Villamar complained recently in an interview with El Daro de Manra magazine.
According to Ecuadorian authorities, Los Choneros control the drug route from the Pacific coast and have links to Mexico’s major Sinaloa cartel.
More than a hundred people taken hostage in prisons
Macías is believed to have escaped this week shortly before he was about to be transferred to more isolated conditions in another prison. However, the authorities have not confirmed that he was killed, but only said that he is “missing”.
The gangs have taken more than a hundred guards and administrative staff of the institutions hostage in the prisons, says SNAI, the authority that supervises the prisons.
China has suspended the operation of its embassy and consulates in Ecuador. France and Russia have advised their citizens not to travel to Ecuador. Peru has declared a state of emergency on its border with Ecuador and sent hundreds of soldiers and police to secure the border.
Sources: AFP, AP, Reuters