Trudeau calls into question findings of stunning watchdog foreign interference report
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has concerns with how conclusions were gathered in a spy watchdog report.
Masked men broke onto the set of a public television channel in Ecuador waving guns and explosives during a live broadcast Tuesday, and the president issued a decree declaring that the violence-plagued country had entered an "internal armed conflict."
The men armed with pistols and what looked like sticks of dynamite entered the set of the TC Television network in the port city of Guayaquil during a news program that was airing live in thousands of homes across the nation and shouted that they had bombs. Noises similar to gunshots could be heard.
No one was killed in the attack, and authorities later said that all the masked intruders had been arrested, 13 in all, and would be charged with terrorism.
Authorities have not said who was behind the television station occupation, or a series of other attacks that have shaken the South American country recently, but they follow the apparent escapes from prison of two of Ecuador's most powerful drug gang leaders.
Alina Manrique, the head of news for TC Television, said she was in the control room at TC Television, across from the studio, when the masked men burst into the building. One of them pointed a gun at her head and told her to get on the floor, Manrique said.
The incident was aired live, although the station's signal was cut off after about 15 minutes. Manrique said some of the assailants ran from the studio and tried to hide when they realized they were surrounded by police.
"I am still in shock" Manrique told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "Everything has collapsed .... All I know is that its time to leave this country and go very far away."
Ecuador has been rocked by a series of attacks, including the abductions of several police officers, in the wake of a notorious gang leader's apparent weekend escape from prison. President Daniel Noboa on Monday declared a national state of emergency, a measure that lets authorities suspend people's rights and mobilize the military in places like prisons.
Shortly after the gunmen stormed the TV station, Noboa issued another decree designating 20 drug trafficking gangs operating in the country as terrorist groups and authorizing Ecuador's military to "neutralize" them within the bounds of international humanitarian law. It also said the country had entered an internal armed conflict.
Ecuador's attorney general's office said the 13 people arrested will be charged with terrorism. It tweeted that it will present the charges in coming hours. Ecuadorian law establishes a penalty of up to 13 years in prison for anyone convicted of terrorism.
The government has not said how many attacks have taken place since authorities announced that Los Choneros gang leader Adolfo Macias, alias "Fito," was discovered missing from his cell in a low security prison Sunday. He was scheduled to be transferred to a maximum security facility that day.
On Tuesday, Ecuadorean officials announced that another gang leader, Fabricio Colon Pico of the Los Lobos group, had escaped from a prison in the town of Riobamba. Colon Pico was captured on Friday as part of a kidnapping investigation and has also been accused of trying to murder one of the nation's lead prosecutors.
Other attacks have included an explosion near the house of the president of the National Justice Court and the Monday night kidnappings of four police officers. Police said one officer was abducted in the capital, Quito, and three in Quevedo city.
Will Freeman, a political analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that while gangs in Ecuador have previously assassinated a presidential candidate and set off car bombs in front of government buildings, Tuesday's events marked a new peak in violence in the country.
"This is a turning point," Freeman said. "Depending on how the government responds it will set the precedent for these kinds of incidents to continue, or it will use this as a catalyst and make some very necessary structural reforms so that the state can start to win its war against crime."
Located on South America's Pacific coast between Peru and Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producers, Ecuador has become a key transit point for the drug in recent years. Much of the violence suffered by the country comes as drug gangs fight each other and the government for control of ports and smuggling routes.
Freeman said that Ecuador's government will have to find ways to control prisons, from where gang leaders continue to lead their operations and might have to consider extraditing some of the top criminal leaders to the United States. The nation of 20 million people might also have to make judicial reforms to give judges greater safety and enable them to anonymously rule over cases involving the drug gangs.
"If these guys can storm a TV station or kill a presidential candidate you as a judge will not go up against them unless you really have strong assurances of your safety," Freeman said.
Los Choneros is one of the Ecuadorian gangs that authorities consider responsible for a spike in violence, much of tied to drug trafficking, that reached a new level last year with the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. The gang has links with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, according to authorities.
The whereabouts of Macias are unknown. Prosecutors opened an investigation and charged two guards in connection with his alleged escape, but neither the police, the corrections system, nor the federal government confirmed whether the prisoner fled the facility or might be hiding in it.
In February 2013, he escaped from a maximum security facility but was recaptured weeks later.
Noboa said in a message on Instagram that he wouldn't stop until he "brings back peace to all Ecuadorians," and that his government had decided to confront crime. The wave of attacks began a few hours after Noboa's announcement.
States of emergency were widely used by Noboa's predecessor, Guillermo Lasso, as a way to confront the wave of violence that has affected the country.
Macias, who was convicted of drug trafficking, murder and organized crime, was serving a 34-year sentence in La Regional prison in the port of Guayaquil.
Los Choneros and other similar groups linked to Mexican and Colombian cartels are fighting over drug trafficking routes and control of territory, including from within detention facilities, where at least 400 inmates have died since 2021, according to authorities.
------
Solano reported from Quito, Ecuador. Manuel Rueda in Bogota, Colombia, contributed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has concerns with how conclusions were gathered in a spy watchdog report.
Federal officials are investigating an unusual rolling motion during the flight of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max.
A lucky lotto player in the Greater Toronto Area is waking up with millions more reasons to smile this morning.
Vancouver police are warning the public that the man who stabbed a stranger in a downtown coffee shop in January 2022 has been released and will be living in the city again.
A federal judge on Friday ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' personal assets but dismissed his company's separate bankruptcy case, leaving the future of his Infowars media platform uncertain as he owes US$1.5 billion for his false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
Israel's military said Saturday that eight soldiers were killed in southern Gaza in the deadliest attack on Israeli forces in months.
London put on a display of birthday pageantry Saturday for King Charles III, a military parade that marked the Princess of Wales ' first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis early this year.
Whether you call it Soccer or Football, this June will be a fantasy month for football fanatics across Canada and the world.
Police in Maine have canceled a shelter-in-place order in the city of Auburn after reporting that an armed person was in an area where a series of explosions and a house fire erupted early Saturday.
Fancy Pokket owner Mike Timani has decided to create a 220-foot long flat bread to celebrate its 35th anniversary.
If certain goals that are in the Paris Climate Accord aren't met, the existence of polar bears in the Hudson Bay may come to an end.
In an attempt to invite one of the most popular recording artists in the world to the land of living skies – the City of Swift Current has offered to rename itself in honour of Taylor Swift.
More than a dozen dogs arrived by Cargojet early Thursday morning to the People for Animal Wellbeing Shelter to find a permanent place to call home in New Brunswick.
Peggy's Cove, N.S., is one of the most famous locations in the Maritimes. Recent visitors were treated to more than just the iconic landmark.
Hundreds of fans lined up to meet the Trailer Park Boys in Dartmouth, N.S., Tuesday, as Ricky, Bubbles and Julian promoted their new brand of potato chips.
Car break-ins plague Canadians across the country, but instead of worrying about theft, a northern Ontario woman is cleaning up a big mess that she says will not be covered by insurance after a black bear broke into her Honda Civic and took a nap.
Members of a Hutterite colony in southern Alberta have potentially built the world's tallest structure made of Popsicle sticks.
A dog who spent the first three-and-a-half years of his life suffering and almost a year at a shelter has found his forever home, according to the BC SPCA.