after the escape, but before the tv studio attack, a 60 day state of emergency was issued in ecuador on monday. will grant reports from guayaquil. viewers in ecuador watched in disbelief as masked and armed gang members entered a state tv channel and held staff hostage all of it televised live. translation: they shot one of our cameramen in the leg. | broke the arm of another one. they were shooting bullets inside the studio. the police were called and came in minutes. the gang was soon arrested and the hostages released, but the tv station ambush was just part of the descent into chaos. panic as gunmen stormed guayaquil university, explosions around the country, schools and businesses shut down and widespread rioting inside ecuador s prisons. in response, president daniel noboa called a state of emergency and imposed a curfew.
population, as more than 120 prison guards are still being held hostage by inmates across the country. nationwide unrest began a few days earlier on sunday when a notorious gang boss escaped from a maximum security facility. it s unclear whether the attack on the tv studio was related to the disappearance of adolfo macias villamar, or fito, as he is better known. after the escape, but before the tv studio attack, a 60 day state of emergency was issued in ecuador on monday. earlier, i spoke to todd chapman, former us ambasador to ecuador and now a non resident fellow at the centre for strategic and international studies. ambassador, i want to ask you first of all what we saw ecuador s president noboa say, in talking about the crisis this country is going through. he said his government is fighting against terrorist groups, and said they want me to call them groups of organised crime, because it is easier. when they are terrorists and where we live in