Images have gone viral this week of a criminal gang, armed with rifles and grenades, interrupting a live broadcast of a television station in Guayaquil (Ecuador). The incident came amid the kidnapping of at least seven policemen and a series of explosions, a day after President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency in the South American country.

“Please don’t shoot, please don’t shoot, please don’t shoot”, a woman is heard saying in television footage, while others sitting on the ground cover their faces. Later, the police was able to put and end to the crisis. That same day, hostages were taken in hospitals and prisons, and the police detained 70 people and killed 8 more.

President Noboa, member of one of Ecuador’s richest families, took office in November on a promise to end a wave of drug-related violence on the streets and in prisons that has been on the rise for years.

On Monday, the Ecuadorian government declared a 60-day state of emergency that allows for military patrols, including in prisons, and the imposition of a nationwide nighttime curfew. Foreign embassied such as that of the US issued security alerts urging their citizens to take precautions in the face of the wave of violence unleashed across the country.

Ecuador’s evangelical churches have not been exempt from this wave of crime and violence. Fabián Aguilar, a former candidate to mayor in the city of Machala, was shot dead on Sunday morning outside a church. The businessman had gone with his family to the Evangelical Christian Pentecostal Mission, parked his van and, as he got out, individuals shot him in the head.

Reactions of evangelical entities

There have been passionate calls for prayer on social media, both from inside and outside the country.

The Latin Evangelical Alliance (AEL) issued a statement on Wednesday in response to the situation of violence in Ecuador, asking for prayers that God, in his mercy, would bring peace to that nation. “We stand in solidarity with the Ecuadorian people as a result of all the violent events that are unfolding”, says the statement from the evangelical organisation. “As Alianza we promote love, respect, justice, peace and the resolution of all conflicts through dialogue because violence is never the way”.

Also Aarón Lara, president of the Ibero-American Congress for Life and the Family - an evangelical movement among Latin American politicians - also called condemned the violence in the South American country.

“We pray to God for the Republic of Ecuador so that anarchy and violence cease and peace and the rule of law return... These aggressions have been qualified as terrorism and it is clear the ethical and moral collapse of a group of people from so-called organised crime who are seeking to impose themselves on the state in order to have a licence for evil”, Lara posted on social media.