Chaos in Ecuador

[Yazata]

The leader of a major criminal gang somehow escaped from a maximum security prison. (Suggestions of corruption in the prison service.) Many rank-and-file prison guards taken hostage and some have been killed in very ugly ways.

Then all hell broke loose in the streets as armed gangsters started attacking and killing people at random. Gangsters broke into a studios of the government TV station and took the news presenters hostage at gunpoint on live TV. Gangsters attacked the Presidential Palace which was evacuated.

There are many criminal gangs in Ecuador and it isn't exactly clear who is doing all this. One gang, or have they all seen an opportunity to overthrow the government and joined together?

Ecuador's President responded by declaring martial law and calling out the army. There are reports of the army and police summarily executing people that they suspect of being members of the criminal gangs, who have all been declared terrorists. The President vows to wipe them out. Mass arrests are being reported.

From all reports, the average citizens in Quito (the capital) have been very supportive of the army, and there are videos of people applauding the soldiers.

The national police stormed the TV studio and reportedly have rescued the TV presenters unhurt.

Stores and businesses in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city and main port where violence is worst, are all closed and tightly shuttered. Military armored vehicles on the streets. Reports of criminal attacks in many smaller provincial towns all over the country.

Peru is sending heavily armed paramilitary police to its border with Ecuador to prevent things from spilling over.

Peruvian national police at the border

[Image: GDcLQ-LXoAA4Yqz?format=jpg&name=small]

Cordoning off the Presidential Palace

https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/...0810013764

At the TV station live on the air

https://twitter.com/ReturnOfKappy/status...0993596819

Gangs attack the university in Guayaquil and try to kidnap students

https://twitter.com/All_Source_News/stat...5346135234

[Zinjanthropos]

If Ecuador started shooting gangsters instead of prison sentences then I don’t think too many would bat an eye. Guns or drugs in the control of gangsters means people get killed.