“All I know is that it’s time to leave this country, and go very far away.” Those words, from a staff member at the TV station attacked by masked gunmen live on air on Tuesday, encapsulate the shock and despair that many in Ecuador now feel. The assault on TC Televisión in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s most dangerous city, was one of multiple spectacular and coordinated attacks by gangs, in which at least 10 people were killed.
Murderous crime has soared over recent years. But this was not just about gangs running rampant and battling each other with a sense of impunity, while brutalising anyone who got in their way. The invasion of a university and hospitals, the kidnapping and killing of police and prison guards, the torching of cars in residential areas, attacks in the Amazon region and looting in the capital, Quito – all these showed gangs operating well outside their usual fiefdoms, banding together, and turning on national institutions and civilians to try to force political leaders to back off. This strategic brutality, which has been described as “violent lobbying”, has been used elsewhere in Latin America, but is new to Ecuador. For many, it feels as if the fate of the country itself is at stake.
