the country plunged into chaos after a hostage taking on television

In Ecuador, armed men invaded a television set, taking the presenter hostage live. In the images, an attacker aims at the journalist and shots ring out in the studio. Several people were injured before the police intervened. ”They came into the studio and asked us to go live”, says Jorge Randon, a journalist for the channel. Thirteen attackers, believed to be part of a drug trafficking gang, were arrested by the police.

State of emergency declared

This unprecedented violence in the South American country follows the escape on Sunday January 7 of Adolfo Macias, called ”Fito”, leader of a gang of 8,000 men involved in a cocaine trafficking network. Plunged into chaos, the country is in the grip of a civil war. Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency.