Public television TC in Guayaquil (Ecuador) suffered a live assault last Tuesday at the hands of several hooded and armed gang members who threatened journalists and viewers with “so that they know that they should not play with the mafias.”
They were moments of maximum tension where the television channel workers believed that the assailants would shoot and kill them. In fact, this Wednesday one of the victims told the Más Vale Tarde microphones about the terror she felt in those moments.
The images from the El Noticiero program, live, have traveled half the world. The way in which several hooded and armed assailants forced the public broadcaster’s staff to lie down on the ground left spectators and the entire society with a heavy heart.
The taking of hostages by the assailants was due to a measure of pressure by this organized group for the police to withdraw. Hence they demanded it while looking at the camera and while shots and screams from the workers were heard.
“There is a colleague injured,” was heard in the broadcast before the signal was cut off. One of the people who experienced this agonizing moment was Alina Manrique, editor-in-chief, who made a connection with Más Vale Tarde to explain this unforgettable experience.
“I thought they were going to find us and shoot us in the same bathroom where we were hiding,” she said, still sad. And she and other workers hid in the bathrooms of the facilities. However, she also acknowledged that she was much more scared in the studio, as was reflected in the live broadcast.
“I thought I was going to die, that they or the police were going to shoot me,” Manrique recalled. In fact, the journalist asserted that the terrorists did not make a clear demand either. In her opinion, the objective of the assailants was “to display their terrorist potential before the audience, a demonstration of criminal power.” For this reason, they destroyed the studio, something that has led the network to stop its broadcasts.
Of course, that has not taken away “the desire to do journalism, but we are going to do it in the way that we have guarantees and have the necessary tools,” Manrique stressed. “I’m alive and that’s profit,” he concluded.
