Ecuador's armed forces were engaged in a brutal standoff with organized crime Thursday, deploying more than 22,400 soldiers to put down a campaign of terror waged by gangs that has claimed 16 lives.
With an armed presence on the streets, patrols by land, sea and air, random body and car searches, prison raids and the enforcement of a curfew, the government of President Daniel Noboa has vowed not to yield in its "war" with 22 criminal gangs.
"They wanted to instill fear, but they aroused our ire," Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo said on social media.
"They believed they would subdue an entire country but forgot that the armed forces are trained for war."
Since Monday, drug cartels have been waging a bloody campaign of kidnappings and attacks in response to a government crackdown on organized crime, prompting Noboa to declare the country to be in a "state of war."
"Yield to evil: never!" the 36-year-old Noboa, in office since November, said in a video message broadcast on television Thursday. "Fight tirelessly: always!"
The small South American country has been plunged into crisis after years of growing control by transnational cartels that use its ports to ship cocaine to the United States and Europe.
Criminal gangs in the country of about 17 million people are thought to have more than 20,000 members.
The latest outburst of violence was sparked by the discovery Sunday of the prison escape of one of the country's most powerful narco bosses, Jose Adolfo Macias, known by the alias "Fito."
On Monday, Noboa imposed a state of emergency and nighttime curfew, but the gangs hit back with a declaration of "war" -- threatening to execute civilians and security forces.
They have instigated numerous prison riots, set off explosions and torched cars in public places.
By Thursday, gang members were holding 178 guards and administrative personnel hostage at several penitentiaries, according to the SNAI prison authority, which also reported ongoing riots and inmates shooting at members of the armed forces.
Police said the death toll rose to 16 late Wednesday with a "terrorist" attack on a discotheque in the Amazon that claimed two lives and injured nine people.
Seven police personnel have been kidnapped in recent days, though only one remains in captivity.
On Tuesday, attackers wearing balaclavas stormed a state-owned TV station in the port city of Guayaquil, briefly taking staff members hostage and firing shots in dramatic scenes broadcast live before police arrived.
Thirteen assailants were arrested, many of them young teenagers.
This attack in particular gave rise to panic in the general population, with many people leaving work early, closing their businesses and running for the safety of home.
On Thursday, many shops and businesses in Ecuador's main cities remained shuttered, though some reopened tentatively.
"We are afraid, afraid that when least expected, they (the gangsters) will do the same thing again," Ines Macas, a 69-year-old homemaker in Quito, told AFP.
Public transport has been reduced to a trickle, schools and universities closed and people urged to work from home.
"If you mess with the people, you mess with the armed forces," Loffredo insisted.
"The criminals' time is up, they are warned. Any terrorist act from now on will immediately become a military target," he added.
Terrified citizens are bombarded on a near daily basis with videos on social media of purported assassinations of members of the security forces.
Police have not confirmed any executions and insist the videos are part of a disinformation campaign.
Noboa has vowed not to bow before the violence, issuing orders to "neutralize" the criminal groups responsible.
"We are in a state of war and we cannot give in to these terrorist groups," Noboa told Radio Canela on Wednesday.
Hundreds of police and soldiers have been deployed in a manhunt for Fito.
Officials have said another narco boss -- Los Lobos leader Fabricio Colon Pico -- also escaped following his arrest last Friday for alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate Ecuador's attorney general.
The United Nations, United States, China and several other countries have expressed concern about the violence and offered support to Noboa.
As the drug mafia has found a foothold in Ecuador in recent years, the country's murder rate quadrupled from 2018 to 2022.
Last year was the worst yet, with 7,800 murders and a record 220 tons of drugs seized.
Much of the violence has been concentrated in prisons, where spectacularly brutal clashes between inmates have left more than 460 dead, many beheaded or burned alive since February 2021.
