Ecuador prepares for a new nighttime curfew in almost half the country

Guayaquil.- Nine provinces and four other municipalities in Ecuador will be under a new nighttime curfew from this Sunday, and for fifteen days, during which security forces will seek to intensify the fight against organized crime, which keeps the country at an unprecedented level of violence. This is the second time this year that President Daniel Noboa has decided to apply this mobility restriction between 23:00 local time (4:00 GMT) and 5:00 local time (10:00 GMT) because, although according to the Government it has had good results, the violence persists and criminal groups have adapted their strategies to continue operating, according to the decree with which the president formalized the measure this Tuesday. Violence level The first curfew in Ecuador, which was between March 15 and 30, was applied in the provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and El Oro, bordering Peru; but this new measure, which will be in force between May 3 and 18, was extended to Santa Elena, Pichincha, Manabí, Sucumbíos and Esmeraldas, bordering Colombia. These territories, where Quito and Guayaquil, the two largest cities in the country, are located, concentrate 90% of the violence and 86.70% of the crime recorded in the country, according to official reports cited in the decree.

The restriction will also apply in the municipalities of La Maná (Cotopaxi), Las Naves and Echeandía (Bolívar) and La Troncal (Cañar). The Government assures that criminal groups "redirected their activities" to areas that were not covered by the first curfew, so "there was no structural neutralization but a geographical displacement" of the crimes.

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Disputes between gangs and alliances

Ecuador closed 2025 with a record of 9,269 homicides and registered 2,086 murders in the first quarter of 2026. According to the authorities, the violence is caused by disputes between leaders of the same gangs who want to consolidate their power or by clashes between rival groups. In Guayaquil, the country's most populous city, there are at least nine groups vying for control of the city and are considered a "critical threat to national security." In other parts, such as in Manabí, El Oro or Quito, the country's capital, temporary alliances between small groups and Los Choneros, the oldest in the country, or Los Lobos, the largest currently, have also led to a rise in extortion and violent acts.

Foreign Groups

Ecuadorian organizations primarily clash over the control of drug trafficking routes, but in the provinces of Esmeraldas and Sucumbíos, located on the northern border, and that dispute extends to Colombian groups, such as the Comandos de la Frontera, a dissident group of the extinct FARC guerrilla. In the Amazon region, the Border Commands "control drug production and its exit from Colombia to Ecuador" and have confrontations with groups like Los Águilas.

Exceptions to the Curfew in Ecuador

During the nights of these 15 days, only police, military, and health and emergency personnel will be able to circulate, despite the request made by the commercial and export sector, mainly linked to bananas and shrimp, the star products of the Andean country, to find ways to combat crime without causing economic damage. The journalists or the staff of international organizations were also not taken into account, despite the fact that the Constitutional Court ordered the Government last March to allow them to go out and do their work. Those who fail to comply with the restriction face prison sentences of between one and three years.