Drug Cartels Are Taking Over Another Country, and We Might Be Next

Ecuador appears to be falling to the drug cartels in another sad chapter in that country's long history of coups and revolutions — and the videos might disturb you.

President Daniel Noboa declared an “internal armed conflict” on Tuesday after one criminal group took over a TV station in the country’s largest city, Guayaquil, during a live newscast. "Internal armed conflict” is just another way of saying "civil war." Noboa also ordered the cartels to be "neutralized," but for now, the cartels might be winning.

The TV station takeover was part of "a wider wave of violence that has engulfed Ecuador as the national government attempts to clamp down on drug-related violence," according to Forbes.

National Police General Commander César Zapata claimed his forces were able to arrest all 13 gunmen and free the hostages without any losses, but TC Television anchor Jorge Rendon described an "extremely violent attack" in which one person was shot and another injured by the cartel terrorists.

Right now Ecuador is experiencing an all-out cartel takeover. They’re executing hostages, taking over prisons, and stormed a news station on live TV.

I used to live in Ecuador. My dad took an oil job there for a year and half while I was in middle school. Nothing like this was… https://t.co/uNqnbZ5an1
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) January 9, 2024

As the cartel violence escalated, police were forced to barricade the Palacio de Carondelet, the seat of government in Quito.

JUST IN: ⚠️ Coup attempt purportedly underway in Ecuador..

Ecuadorian Military arrives to Barricade Front of the Carondelet Palace…

DEVELOPING.. https://t.co/qFzhgvwJQz pic.twitter.com/m8U8G0sgiH
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) January 9, 2024

Other victims of the cartel violence sweeping the nation weren't so lucky as those the police rescued at TC Television. In this video shared Tuesday by Chuck Callesto, masked men appear to be executing hostages.

BREAKING NOW:⚠️ [CONTENT WARNING]

Cartel members reportedly EXECUTING HOSTAGES in Ecuador.. https://t.co/k1k20bO5Ph pic.twitter.com/ENEkY7HBt8
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) January 9, 2024

The black masks, the sociopathic eagerness to do violence... it's impossible to say for sure where these apparent executions took place. The killer could be a cartel thug, Hamas, or Antifa. It's the kind of semi-random violence that has become the stock-in-trade of drug cartels and terror groups alike.

The effective political reach of the drug cartels is much closer than Ecuador.

At this time last year, officials and residents of Yuma, Ariz., warned that Mexican cartels already controlled that part of the map that used to be our southern border. “This is not a political discussion, this is a national security issue," Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines told Fox News last January. "Unless this situation changes and we take back control from the cartels, for the trafficking coming across our border, it will only get worse."

If you want to know what "worse" looks like, look no further than the videos embedded in this column.

Since Lines issued his warning, record illegal crossings have only increased. December broke yet another record with an estimated 250,000 crossings in that month alone. Presidentish Joe Biden's Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, faces an impeachment inquiry today in Congress "over allegations he has encouraged illegal immigration with overly lax policies."

The chaos further enriches the cartels. "You know, now nobody crosses without paying the cartels," Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin told a congressional committee last month. "So the cartels, you know, determine when people cross, you know, how many people cross at a time, all of that. It’s all — it’s all controlled by them."

Maybe they're letting in the kind of people who launch military-style assaults on TV stations, but — fingers crossed! — maybe not. Or as PJ Media's own Victoria Taft put it recently, "Joe Is Asleep, America. You're on Your Own."

"Keep your powder dry — and keep lots of powder," a wise man once said. I'd always attributed that line to Robert Heinlein's Lazarus Long, but after an exhaustive online search for its origin, I think it might be my own.

I might not be that wise, but I do keep a lot of powder. And in a pinch, that's not a bad substitute.