Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa said the country will emerge victorious from the internal armed conflict it has been experiencing in recent days.
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“We are confident that we will emerge victorious from this conflict,” Noboa said in an address to the nation.
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A video of him was posted on his page on the social network X.
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Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency on January 8 to use the military to regain control of the prison system. After this, riots began in a number of cities and in prisons – on the night of January 9, criminals began to burn cars and buses, homemade bombs were detonated in Guayaquil, bandits temporarily seized the studio of a local TV channel, and 139 employees and prison guards were taken hostage. Police initially reported that unknown assailants kidnapped seven law enforcement officers in the capital Quito and the city of Machala in less than 24 hours. Three officers from Machala were also soon released alive.
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Responding to the new round of violence, Noboa declared an internal armed conflict and ordered the army to neutralize 22 criminal groups with tens of thousands of members. The head of the joint command of the armed forces, Jaime Vela Eraso, declared these criminal groups military targets and said that there would be no negotiations with them.
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On Wednesday, he said that after the start of the riots, security forces detained 329 alleged criminals and eliminated five people during raids; 41 people were rescued from captivity.
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The current head of Ecuador came to power with the slogans of fighting crime, which has reached alarming proportions. During the last election campaign alone, the presidential candidate of the Construye political movement, Fernando Villavicencio, as well as the leader of the Civil Revolution political movement in the Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas, Pedro Briones, were killed.
