Key Points
- Gunmen attacked a New Year’s gathering in Manta, killing at least six; later reports put the toll at seven.
- Manabí is under a state of exception, yet the Manta district finished 2025 with more than 500 killings.
- A national homicide surge is testing President Daniel Noboa’s hardline strategy.
Just before midnight on December 31, a celebration in Manta turned into a shooting. Local reports said armed men arrived in the Nueva Esperanza neighborhood, in the Eloy Alfaro parish area, and opened fire on people welcoming the New Year.
At least six people were killed, including a child and a woman, and roughly 10 to 11 others were wounded. Several outlets later said the death toll rose to seven after victims died in hospital.
Manta is a Pacific port with transport links that criminal groups fight to tax or control. Manabí province has been one of Ecuador’s hardest-hit zones, and local reporting has tied the worst violence to organized networks connected to drug trafficking and smuggling routes.
The result is a kind of public intimidation that does not need a manifesto. It sends its message through timing, location, and scale. The state response has hardened.
Since January 2024, Noboa has described the crisis as an “internal armed conflict” and has pushed an emergency footing that many Ecuadorians see as a necessary correction after years of weak enforcement.
On December 31, he signed Executive Decree 277, imposing a 60-day state of exception across nine provinces, including Manabí, plus three cantons elsewhere.
The decree broadens security operations and temporarily restricts protections tied to the inviolability of the home and of correspondence in the affected areas.
Still, the trend line is brutal. Local reporting said the “Manta district,” which also includes Montecristi and Jaramijó, ended 2025 with more than 500 killings; some reports cited around 519.
Nationally, an official-data analysis counted 4,619 intentional homicides in the first half of 2025 and 7,033 in all of 2024. Late-2025 reporting suggested Ecuador was tracking toward roughly 9,000 murders for 2025.
For outsiders, the lesson is simple. When violence concentrates in port corridors, it raises costs for trade and insurance and turns public holidays into high-risk moments.
Related coverage: Brazil’s Morning Call | Trump Threatens Military Action If Iran Cracks Down On Prote This is part of The Rio Times’ daily coverage of Ecuador affairs and Latin American financial news.