Ecuadorian security forces have detained 329 suspects in the fight against criminal gangs.
Firearms, ammunition, explosives, incendiary devices, boats and vehicles were also seized during operations throughout the country, said Chief of Staff Jaime Vela on Wednesday.
In addition, soldiers and police freed 41 hostages from the gangs.
Five suspected gang members were killed by security forces.
The previous day, President Daniel Noboa had issued a decree declaring 22 criminal groups as terrorist organisations and non-state warring parties that should be eliminated.
“All of these groups are now military targets,’’ Vela said.
The decree went on to say that Ecuador was engaged in an internal armed conflict in the fight against organised crime.
In an unprecedented action, gunmen broke into the premises of the state television station TC Televisión in the harbour city of Guayaquil during a live broadcast on Tuesday.
They took several journalists and employees hostage.
Shots and screams could be heard in the broadcast.
The security situation in Ecuador had recently deteriorated dramatically.
The murder rate of around 46.5 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants last year was the highest in the history of the once peaceful Andean country and one of the highest in Latin America.
Several gangs with links to powerful Mexican cartels are fighting for control of the drug trafficking routes.
Ecuador is an important transit country for cocaine from South America, which is smuggled to the U.S. and Europe. (dpa/NAN). READ ALSO:
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