According to this source, the group wanted to “protect an injured member of their organization” who had been admitted to that hospital early that morning.
Confiscation of weapons and drugs
Firearms and drugs were also confiscated. According to police, a secret “re-education center” where suspected members of the organization were “hiding” was also raided.
Authorities have recently closed several such centers, which are essentially secret hospitals run by gangs and which authorities say lack the medical equipment needed to treat patients.
According to the army, around ten tons of drugs were also seized on Sunday near the town of Vinces in the western province of Los Rios.
“Andean Security Network”
On the same day, a special meeting on Ecuador, undermined as never before by violence related to drug trafficking, was held in Lima, the capital of Peru, bringing together member countries of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN).
At the end of this summit, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador announced the creation of the first “Andean Security Network” against organized crime, according to an official statement. This network ensures “a 24/7 service to provide and receive information and/or request information from other countries.” […] on the activities of criminal groups that carry out or may carry out transnational operations,” said the CAN Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs and Defense.
“We have written history, we have written a new chapter for CAN,” said Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld. “Fear paralyzes countries. We have seen that fear has paralyzed Ecuador, crippling investment and increasing unemployment and migration.”
Twenty gangs rule the roost
The spread and spread of gangs operating drug trafficking and crime in Ecuador has put border areas on alert. Peru and Colombia have tightened their border controls, fearing the entry of criminals fleeing increasing repression in Ecuador.
Ecuador, considered a relatively safe country, has been descending into violence for five years, against the backdrop of economic downturn and impoverishment following the Covid-19 pandemic: the murder rate has risen from 6 to 46 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.
Located between Colombia and Peru, the world's largest cocaine producers, Ecuador has been sheltered from drug-trafficking violence for years. But from a simple transit country it has become an operational and logistics center for the transport of cocaine to Europe. And around twenty gangs literally rule the law, especially from prisons.
state of emergency
Another highlight of the terror was the live attack on the public television TC on January 9 by heavily armed men who briefly took the station's journalists and employees hostage before police managed to free them and arrest 13 attackers .
Eight days later, anti-Mafia prosecutor Cesar Suarez, who was responsible for investigating this spectacular attack, was assassinated in broad daylight in the center of Guayaquil (southwest).