Guayaquil, a ghost city in the “war” against criminal gangs

In the image of its famous Malecón, the long promenade that dominates the brownish waters of the Guayas River, today strangely emptyGuayaquil, the large port city on the Pacific coast of Ecuador, looks deserted.

Access to the gardens along the cement pier overlooking the river is prohibited, and restaurants that usually serve tourists the famous local shrimp remain closed.

This city of more than 3 million inhabitants, the heart of the Ecuadorian economy, but also the epicenter of drug trafficking, lives in the psychosis of the blind violence of criminal gangs, in a state of open war since Sunday against the government.

Not a soul is seen on the Malecón. The very nearby center of the city, its true heart, with its public offices and its business district, which is usually packed when people leave their jobs, appears strangely empty on Wednesday afternoon.

You can see a few vehicles on the main avenues, rare pedestrians rushing home, and shop windows with their iron curtains drawn.

Tigers and Wolves

The town hall, with its elegant colonial architecture, is also deserted, as is the neighboring government. The many banks in the area have closed their doors.

Even the portals of the neo-Gothic Catholic cathedral and the centuries-old iguana park in front of it, one of the city’s main tourist attractions, are padlocked.

This Thursday morning there is a little more movement, with the opening of some businesses and people leaving on their way to work, without the panorama essentially altering.

But where have they all gone? “Everyone is afraid… It’s been like this since Tuesday, because of everything that has happened…”, grumbles a homeless man on a corner, somewhat surprised by this ghost town spectacle.

The situation was already tense since Sunday, with the escape of public enemy number one, Adolfo.“Fito” Macías, feared leader of the Choneros gang, of the enormous Guayas penitentiary, on the outskirts of the city.

His escape precipitated an unprecedented security crisis throughout the country, with a wave of riots, attacks on security forces, cars and public facilities burned…

The crisis was followed by the forceful response of the young president Daniel Noboa, who ordered a state of emergency, declared the “war” to the criminal gangs and threw the army into the streets.

It was the spectacular takeover, on Tuesday, by fifteen armed and hooded individuals, of the studio of a public television channel, and the images of journalists at gunpoint broadcast live, which literally sowed panic in the city.

The rapid intervention of the police made it possible to put an end to the hostage taking without causing any casualties, with the arrest of 13 of the attackers.

But the massacre was narrowly avoided, according to coincident testimonies collected by AFP.

The target of the kidnappers, mostly teenagers who claimed to be members of the Tiguerones and the Lobos, two local criminal gangs, was “clearly kill.”

His amateurism and doubts facilitated the intervention of the security forces to a certain extent, a police source acknowledged.

“Sowing terror”

He “message” of these criminal groups “It is clear, sow fear and terror,” commented General Víctor Herrera, one of Guayaquil’s main police chiefs, the day after the attack.

“It is important to be aware of the level of risk that the city is experiencing (…)” he stressed, before reporting 14 assassination attempts in 24 hours.

Herrera insisted on the “recommendations” given to the police to protect the population and regretted the role played in this crisis by social networks, through which the members of these gangs, now described as “terrorists” by the authorities, they try “generate panic.”

One example among others: a video released on Wednesday that shows two armed individuals, dressed in the uniform of a famous food delivery company and wearing an Anonymous mask, in a threatening attitude.

sometimes called “GuayaKill”this city, a major export point for cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru, has become familiar with violence.

At the end of June 2023, it had a homicide rate of 40.8 per 100,000 inhabitants, with 1,425 murders recorded in six months, almost double that of the same period in 2022.

Since the summer, the homicide rate has not stopped growing, particularly in popular neighborhoods, territories undermined by the insecurity generated by criminal gangs.

In the city center, the police presence remains relatively discreet, with the exception of the military cordon set up in front of the immense tower that serves as President Noboa’s residence.

Motorized patrols appear here and there. The military deployment is particularly noticeable around strategic points such as the airport, where soldiers cover their faces and carry rifles on their shoulders.

Public hospitals only deal with emergencies, and in-person classes are no longer taught.

“We will wait and see what happens,” says Fernando, a taxi driver parked in front of Mall del Sol, one of the few shopping centers that remains open, but which also looks ghostly.

“What we have learned here is that criminal gangs are unpredictable,” warns.