The South American country declared what it called

an internal armed conflict after gunmen

took over a TV studio and launched a series of attacks.

(car bangs) (people screams)

Fighting intensified after a top gang leader

escaped from prison on Sunday,

prompting a 60-day state of emergency.

Here's what's caused Ecuador's wave of violence

and what's at stake for the region and the US

as gangs fight for control

of lucrative cocaine trafficking routes.

- Ecuador has been going to a surge of violence

over the last three or four years.

It's gone from one of the safest country in Latin America

to one of the most violent,

and that's due to the drug trade.

On Sunday, what happened is that a lot of the drug gangs,

their leaders are located in the prisons.

And one of the leaders of one of the biggest gangs

in Ecuador escaped from prison on Sunday.

That prompted a response from the new president,

Daniel Noboa, who issued a state of emergency

and sent in law enforcement

to try to take control of the prisons.

A day after that happened, on Tuesday,

another gang members took over a TV station in Guayaquil,

the country's biggest city.

Then across the country, really,

there was different incidents that occurred,

kinda car bombs.

Police were kidnapped.

It seemed like a very coordinated response

to the government to try to send a message.

President Daniel Noboa,

who's only been in office since November,

he declared an internal armed conflict in Ecuador.

So what that practically means is that the military

will now have a greater role in trying to improve security.

So basically, the gangs become military targets.

The soldiers are able to try to neutralize them.

The root of this wave of violence

is an increasing drug trade.

Drugs flowing in from Colombia, mainly,

that are going up to Europe and the United States.

They are now moving into Ecuador.

A lot of the cocaine production in Colombia

is on the border with Ecuador.

The security experts say that it's actually easier

for Colombian gangs to move the drugs into Ecuador

rather than straight outta Colombia.

Ecuador has really good roads,

has really good infrastructure,

has little security at the ports.

Ecuador also is a dollarized economy.

So that makes it easier for drug gangs

to launder their money into the country.

And that has attracted a lot of attention

from international cartels, Mexican cartels,

Albanian cartels, for example,

and it has provided a lot more resources

for the local gangs who are now controlling this.

At the same time, a really key factor in this violence

has been the government's inability to control

what happens inside the prisons.

The prisons have become the headquarters

and the de facto headquarters for the gangs

where they operate with immunity from inside.

Security experts will say that what needs to be done,

the first thing needs to be done,

is that the government needs to take back control

of the prisons.

Without that, it's very difficult to weaken the gangs

and to reduce the violence.

Longer term, I mean, it's an issue

of how to deal with the international drug trade.

And then also the US, Europe, Colombia,

Mexico, several American countries right now

are struggling with increase to crime.

Ecuador is, I think,

the most startling example of that by far.