‘They Want to Kill Us All’: Armed Gangsters Storm Live Ecuadorian TV Broadcast

A group of armed hooded men stormed the premises of TC Television, a new network headquartered in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Tuesday, kidnapping all the personnel present in the building.

The incident occurred in the context of a new wave of prison riots and widespread violence nationwide that erupted shortly after José Adolfo Macías, a gang leader known as Ecuador’s “most wanted criminal,” seemingly disappeared from Guayaquil’s prison. Macías was serving a 34-year sentence when he abruptly vanished on Monday. The violence prompted Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa to impose a 60-day national state of emergency on Monday. 

Videos published on social media show the armed men interrupting TC Television’s live broadcast, threatening the channel’s personnel at gunpoint, and forcing them to lie on the ground and publicly ask the police to leave.

The hooded men proceeded to exhibit what appeared to be makeshift explosive devices and grenades, placing one in the pocket of José Luis Calderón, one of the network’s news anchors.

Another video shows the channel’s staff held at gunpoint and forced to demand President Noboa order the police to withdraw.

Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo reported that dozens of journalists and cameramen were requesting help via chat messaging, stressing, “They want to kill us all, help us.”

Shortly after the attack on TC Television, President Noboa announced that he had signed an executive decree declaring the situation an “internal armed conflict” and authorizing the Ecuadorian Armed Forces to execute military operations against the country’s main gangs.

Similarly, other videos published on Tuesday afternoon indicate that gang members are attempting to break into Guayaquil’s city university to kidnap students.

The Secretary General of Communications of the Presidency Roberto Izurieta announced that most of TC Television’s staff had been freed by local security officials as of Tuesday evening, adding that law enforcement is working to safeguard the lives of staffers who remain inside the studio.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.