Ecuador hunkers down for a government war on drug gangs after attack during live TV newscast

By GONZALO SOLANO and MEGAN JANETSKY
Associated Press

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Schools and stores are shuttered, many people stayed home and soldiers are roaming the streets of Ecuador’s biggest cities after armed gang members invaded a television station live afternoon newscast. The intruders wielding explosives and guns flashed across the TVs of Ecuadorians for 15 minutes on Tuesday as the intruders threatened and assaulted employees of the TC Televisión network in the coastal city of Guayaquil. The brazen show of force was unprecedented in violence-plagued Ecuador, and elicited a strong government response. “We are in a state of war and we cannot give in,” President Daniel Noboa said Wednesday as security forces guarded hospitals, public transit and newsrooms and arrested more than 330 on terror charges.