The news of hooded gunmen barging into a live television show and taking hostages in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city and chief port, reverberated around the world Tuesday.
“It’s apocalyptic,” said Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at the Wilson Center global affairs think tank in Washington, D.C. “There is a real question whether organized crime can be brought under control with the resources that Ecuador has at its disposal. It’s really reminiscent of the darkest days of Mexico and Colombia.”
He said Ecuador was long an oasis of peace in the midst of the violence related to organized crime and drug cartels that ravaged Colombia for so many years. Since Ecuador does not have the experience of drug trafficking organizations challenging the government as Colombia has had, it does not have the military, security services and resources to deal with the chaos and security threats it is now facing.
“The scale of the problem and the inexperience of Ecuador in trying to dismantle organized crime mafias will make this a really challenging problem,” said Gedan, who was in Guayaquil in November.
Here’s a look at what’s happening in the South American country.
What took place at the TV station?
Hooded gunmen armed with powerful weapons and explosives stormed into public television channel Telecentro in the middle of a live broadcast and viewers watched as staff members were rounded up and made to lie down. A gunman proclaimed, “You cannot play with the mafia,” The Associated Press reported.
Though viewers heard gunshots and screams, and some staffers were beaten, no one was killed, and eventually the government announced the arrests of several people.
But the television station’s head of news expressed the horror that Ecuadorians feel about the rising violence, telling the AP that she thought of her children as the attackers aimed a gun at her head. “Everything has collapsed,” Alina Manrique said. “All I know is that it’s time to leave this…
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