The intercom warned that there were more people at Metrovía stations around three in the afternoon on Tuesday, January 9, but when the doors of the unit crossing Eloy Alfaro Street – south of Guayaquil – opened, it was not full, although something was wrong.

They had just finished lunch and the boss of a company from this sector sent her staff home and announced that they were going to work remotely, without explanation. As there was a mess around that office, the employees knew that the reason was the security situation, but when one of them was getting into the articulated vehicle, she started to see people running, closing the doors of the drive, and the stations were stopped. They were charging.

Something is wrong, isn’t it?” He asked who was next to him and then he knew that armed men had entered the room. TC television and they showed live how they are holding journalists and staff of the state channel as hostages.

8 dead and two injured during several hours of violence and chaos in Guayaquil: this is the balance of this day of terror

Then his frightened face turned into horror, and his hands began to shake. She called her sister on the phone and her nerves became even worse: “I will try to come.” The thing is that she lives in Durán, where she was told that the situation is worse: attacks on vehicles with shots or their burning. She got off at the Naval Base station to take the bus to her canton, but before she got off she looked at those following the road and said “good”, to which she received “may God be with you”.

A girl was sitting in the empty seat who could not get over the shock and used the sound of her mobile phone to inform her family that she was fine and that she was on her way. “Shots were heard, and the owner closed the door and broke a bunch of bottles. But they closed and I stayed inside. But I’m coming.”

Behind her was someone from Nobol who had to get to the land terminal to pick up his transport, but they called him to tell him they were closing the road and to be careful.

‘They were forced to broadcast live’: TC Televisión employee tells what happened inside the channel

Others were more overcome by anger than fear. “If they come to the channel and point a gun at the presenter, they want to show that they have power. They are terrorists! Where is the army? Their streets must be full of soldiers,” shouted an elderly man.

Many looked out the window to see that there were actually no patrols on the streets, that there were only cars and few because when that Metrovía arrived at the Río Daule terminal, it and the ground terminal were already closed.

Workers and people who could no longer board there went to transports that would take them home.

On the other hand, Metrovía buses that arrived in Río Daule dropped off their passengers and went directly to the warehouse; many people were trapped in that terminal. “There are no cars until further orders,” said the security guards. So dozens remained sitting on the floor waiting for the units to return to traffic, others continued their journey on foot.

‘We are hiding in our offices, they say they will kidnap us if we leave,’ says hospital doctor Teodoro Maldonado Carbo, militarized by threats

The pedestrian crossing that connects the two terminals was crowded and although the guards at the Ground Terminal warned passers-by not to go down Avenida de las Américas: “there’s a candle there”, because the TC is on that road, people had to follow their path. the way home.

That avenue was closed in certain parts and few cars were circulating after 4 p.m., and only a dozen people decided to walk along it. In the Bahía Norte shopping center, a vehicle of a company operating on Juan Tanca Marengo Avenue stopped to drop off one of its workers who had to go to El Recre in Durán. She got out and walked the entire avenue to try to find a car that would take her home, and if not, she was going to advance to Samanes where one of her children lives.

Businesses in the area were closed, and some were waiting with their staff for the intrusion into the canal to be controlled. And when the situation was under control, the workers started going from various points in the city to their homes, and those who had cars helped by dropping off their colleagues or leaving them on the main roads so they could walk.

That’s how Ivette arrived at Sauces. A colleague dropped her off at the Naval Academy in Guayaquil and she walked ten blocks to her home. She was the last of her family to arrive at 5:40 p.m.

Parents continued to accompany their children’s prisoners, because they did not come home from school. Some tours ended almost overnight due to the chaos.