The toll Ecuador’s dramatic surge in violence has taken on families: ‘We rarely leave the house now’

Lauren Crosby Medlicott speaks to Carla Angelica Bohorquez Luque, from the city of Guayaquil, about the fear spreading around her neighbourhood following a series of violent incidents perpetrated by powerful drug cartels

Soldiers stand near a checkpoint in Guayaquil, amid the ongoing wave of danger around the nation (Reuters)

Carla Angelica Bohorquez Luque arrived home from working as a psychologist in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, when she heard her neighbour scream: “They have taken over Channel 10! They have kidnapped them!”

The channel was the state-owned TC Television. Luque ran upstairs to watch the unfolding crisis on her television with her mother, masked men waved guns and explosives during a live broadcast in the studio.

“They had several men with cameras lying on the floor,” the 35-year-old told The Independent. “They were pointing machine guns at them.”