MADRID (AFP) – Spain is following with “concern” the crisis in Ecuador, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said yesterday, a day after the Latin American country exploded in what President Daniel Noboa called an “internal armed conflict”.
“We are of course following with concern the events that have been taking place in recent days in that country, which needless to say we will support,” Sanchez said in Madrid, at an event with Spanish ambassadors.
“We are confident that normality will soon be restored,” the premier said, adding that Madrid “backed democratic institutions”.
Ecuador’s president gave orders on Tuesday to “neutralise” criminal gangs after gunmen opened fire in a TV studio and bandits threatened random executions on a second day of terror in the violence-riddled country.
Gangs declared war on the government when Noboa announced a state of emergency following the prison escape on Sunday of one of Ecuador’s most powerful narco bosses.
