Ecuador Declares Yet Another Emergency as Killings Rise Despite Crackdown
Key Facts
This story is part of our coverage of the Ecuador local elections 2026. The date, the candidates and how Ecuador votes are in our Ecuador local elections guide.
This story is part of our coverage of the Ecuador local elections 2026. The date, the candidates and how Ecuador votes are in our Ecuador local elections guide.
Ecuador has fought drug gangs under near-permanent emergency rule since early 2024, yet its murder rate remains near record highs. President Daniel Noboa has now declared another 60-day state of exception covering eight provinces and three cantons.
Executive Decree 498, signed by President Daniel Noboa, took effect on 15 September 2026 for sixty days. It suspends three constitutional rights in eight provinces and three cantons, which are municipal districts.
Why This Matters
Ecuador has become a major transit hub for cocaine heading to foreign markets. The drug comes from neighbouring Colombia and Peru, and trafficking gangs control ports and coastal cities, Al Jazeera reported.
The rate was around 8 homicides per 100,000 people in 2021, and it later touched about 51. That peak is the highest ever recorded in the country, and 2025, with 9,216 killings, was its worst year.
On 9 January 2024, gunmen stormed the TC Televisión studio in Guayaquil during a live broadcast. Noboa responded with Decree 111, declaring an internal armed conflict and naming 22 criminal groups as terrorist organisations.
Emergency rule has followed in one form or another ever since, and Decree 498 is the latest instalment. The United States has taken an interest, designating the gangs Los Choneros and Los Lobos as terrorist organisations in September 2025.
That step, announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, allows asset seizures and closer intelligence sharing with Ecuador. For foreign readers, the question is whether emergency rule is working, and the government’s own numbers suggest it is not.
Who Is Behind the Decree
Daniel Noboa first won power in a 2023 snap election, to finish the term of his predecessor, Guillermo Lasso. He won a full term in a runoff on 13 April 2025, taking 55.6% of the vote against Luisa González.
He has built his presidency on a hard line against the gangs, including joint military and police operations. Voters have not backed every part of that approach, however.
In a referendum on 16 November 2025, nearly two-thirds rejected allowing foreign military bases to return. Noboa had supported the measure, and he said afterwards that he respected the will of the people.
Exactly Where It Applies
The eight provinces are El Oro, Esmeraldas, Guayas, Los Ríos, Manabí, Pichincha, Santa Elena and Santo Domingo. Guayas contains Guayaquil, the main port, and Pichincha contains the capital, Quito.
Three cantons outside those provinces are also covered, namely Camilo Ponce Enríquez, Las Naves and La Maná. Reports that describe eight provinces alone are leaving out part of the geography.
The curfew is narrower than the decree, and this is where most coverage slips. It runs from midnight to five in the morning, in Guayas, Manabí, Los Ríos and El Oro only.
It applies from 17 to 30 September, and there are no transit permits. Breaking the curfew carries a prison sentence of one to three years.
What Rights Are Suspended
The decree suspends the inviolability of the home, which allows searches without a warrant. It suspends the inviolability of correspondence, allowing suspicious parcels to be intercepted on a technical report.
It suspends freedom of transit, which is the legal basis for the curfew. It authorises joint military and police operations against trafficking and extortion groups.
It also allows requisitions, meaning the state can take over private goods for security operations. The stated ground is grave internal unrest, the standard constitutional formula for this kind of order.
The Numbers the Government Used
The decree cites 442 intentional homicides between 16 August and 10 September 2026. Guayas accounts for 187 of them, El Oro for 80 and Manabí for 73.
Los Ríos recorded 52, Santa Elena 20, Esmeraldas 15, Pichincha 12 and Santo Domingo 3. Those are twenty-six days, and annualised, the pace works out at roughly 6,200 killings a year.
The government’s own justification document therefore describes an acceleration, not a decline. That undercuts any claim that earlier emergency decrees had brought the violence under control.
Why the Falling Trend Is Misleading
Official figures for January to July 2026 show 4,882 homicides, down 7.8% on the same period of 2025. That comparison flatters the present, because 2025 was the worst year in Ecuador’s history.
The first half of 2026 was still the second deadliest first half on record, at 4,154 killings. The monthly path tells a different story, with 693 violent deaths in June and 704 in July.
Both months were above the same months of 2025. The year-to-date decline was front-loaded and has since reversed.
The Rate That Tells the Longer Story
Ecuador’s homicide rate ran near 49 per 100,000 people on a rolling annual basis to 31 March 2026. The country logged 1,189 homicides in 2019, a fraction of today’s toll.
Six Ecuadorian cities now rank among the ten most violent in South America by homicide rate. States of exception have run, in some form, throughout that entire climb.
The Court That Can Cut It Short
Ecuador’s Constitutional Court, its highest court on rights questions, reviews every state of exception. It does not always approve them in full, and in March 2026 it cut one decree to thirty days.
In June 2026 it upheld a decree covering ten provinces and three cantons. Its review of Decree 498 had not been issued when this article was published.
The sixty days are therefore not settled. They are the government’s request, pending judicial confirmation.
A Pattern Rather Than an Event
Noboa decreed a state of exception in January 2026, covering seven provinces for sixty days. He decreed another in June 2026, covering ten provinces and three cantons.
Counting back to January 2024, Decree 498 is roughly the twentieth of its kind. Presenting it as an escalation, without that cadence, misses what is actually being reported.
The more useful description is that emergency rule has become the ordinary condition of policing in Ecuador. Noboa welcomed the US terrorist designations in 2025, which gave his approach outside backing.
What It Means If You Live There or Travel There
If you are in Guayas, Manabí, Los Ríos or El Oro, plan around a curfew from midnight to five until 30 September. Searches without a warrant are lawful inside the covered areas for the duration of the decree.
Outside those provinces and the three named cantons, nothing changes legally. For businesses, the operational risk is not the decree but the violence, which has moved rather than fallen.
El Oro, on the Peruvian border, has risen sharply while Guayaquil improved. That pattern points to displacement rather than reduction.
What Is Not Yet Known
The Constitutional Court’s ruling on Decree 498 has not been published. Whether the curfew is extended beyond 30 September has not been announced.
Official August and September homicide totals beyond the 442 cited in the decree have not been released. Whether another decree follows in November is the open question, and the record suggests it may.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Ecuador’s new emergency matter?
Ecuador has become a major cocaine transit route, and its murder rate remains near record highs. Repeated emergency decrees since 2024 have not reversed that trend.
What does Decree 498 cover?
It covers eight provinces and three cantons for sixty days from 15 September 2026. It suspends the inviolability of the home and of correspondence, and freedom of transit.
Where does the curfew apply?
In Guayas, Manabí, Los Ríos and El Oro only, from midnight to five in the morning. It runs between 17 and 30 September 2026.
Is violence in Ecuador falling?
Homicides for January to July 2026 were 7.8% below the same period of 2025, the worst year on record. June and July 2026 were both above their 2025 equivalents.
Sources: Nodal, the decree and the provinces covered, El Diario, the curfew and the rights suspended, Diario Extra, homicides from January to July, Lupa, the first-half homicide comparison, Radio Pichincha, the homicide rate to March 2026, PADF, the regional homicide bulletins, Teleamazonas, Decree 111 and the internal armed conflict, Al Jazeera, the 2025 referendum on foreign bases, CBS News, US terrorist designation of two Ecuadorian gangs, Wikipedia, the 2025 Ecuadorian general election
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief