Ecuador violence affects whole world

BBC Online :
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has told the BBC the gang violence which dramatically exploded this week in his country is a problem for the whole world.

Ecuador’s youngest ever president has only been in the job since November, but he is now faced with the country’s biggest crisis in its modern history.

Days of unrest saw two gang leaders escape from jail, prison guards held hostage, and explosive devices set off in a number of cities across the country.

Then, a day after Mr Noboa declared a state of emergency, armed men burst into the studios of TC television in Guayaquil, threatening staff with guns live on air.

Speaking exclusively to the BBC during his first visit to Guayaquil since the violence, the president acknowledged that the task ahead in restoring peace to the country was daunting.

“I didn’t sign up for this thinking it was going to be easy,” he says on the waterfront of the conflicted port city. “We can’t continue with this game that these terrorist groups are trying to establish.”