By Alejandra Garcia on August 7, 2025
President Naboa and members of the milatary
This week, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a new state of emergency in the provinces of Guayas, Manabí, Los Ríos, and El Oro, citing a situation of “grave internal unrest.” Violent incidents have skyrocketed, and the Noboa administration attributes them to organized armed groups operating within the framework of the internal armed conflict declared in January 2024.
The measure was made official through Executive Decree No. 76, signed in the city of Guayaquil on August 6, and will remain in effect for 60 days. Once again, the decision has raised concerns among human rights organizations, security experts, and civilians, as it entails the suspension of fundamental rights—particularly the inviolability of the home and correspondence—in a country already living under a near-constant state of emergency.
Under the new decree, the Armed Forces and the National Police will be authorized to carry out raids, searches, and seizures in locations identified as hideouts for criminal groups, without the need for a prior court order. Likewise, the interception of both physical and electronic communications is permitted, under the justification of identifying and dismantling criminal structures.
These exceptional measures add to a series of similar decisions adopted since Noboa took office in November 2023, as part of his national security strategy known as the Phoenix Plan. However, the results continue to raise doubts in a country that has shifted from being one of the safest in Latin America to one of the most violent.
Violence Statistics, an Excuse?
According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, the current wave of violence presents significant contrasts. While Manabí has seen an alarming 239% increase in violent deaths between July 11 and August 3, 2025 (compared to the same period in 2024), Los Ríos recorded a 55% rise. In contrast, El Oro and Guayas show decreases of 20% and 15%, respectively.
Despite these mixed figures, the government justifies the declaration of a state of emergency in all four provinces, citing a “latent risk” and the need to maintain a “strong” state presence.
Many analysts and civil society actors are alarmed about this new dictatorial state of emergency that is revealing yet another sign of the failure of Daniel Noboa’s security policy. Instead of bringing calm and normality, the escalating violence suggests otherwise. The absence of comprehensive public policies, prevention program. In the affected territories the population is unprotected and vulnerable.
Since January 2024, when the internal armed conflict was declared, thousands of people have been detained for alleged links to organized crime. Yet systematic repression has failed to curb violence; instead, it has eroded fundamental rights without implementing long-term strategies to address the structural roots of the problem: poverty, lack of opportunities, institutional corruption, and state absence.
Normalization of the State of Emergency
The recurring use of such exceptional measures has alarmed democratic sectors, who warn against the normalization of the state of emergency as a governing tool. Its frequent application risks weakening constitutional guarantees and laying the groundwork for an authoritarian regime under the guise of security.
Ecuador is now facing the worst crisis of violence in its recent history. And while the government continues to rely on rhetoric of force and direct confrontation, the results fail to match its words. In this context, the call for a comprehensive, democratic, and rights-respecting response is more urgent than ever.
Once one of South America’s safest countries, Ecuador has registered a dramatic rise in violent crime in the past few years. In response, Noboa, the son of the richest man in Ecuador, has adopted a series of hardline security policies that have raised concern over human rights abuses. The policies range from the repeated declaration of states of emergency, the construction of El Salvador-style prisons, and a “strategic alliance” with private US military contractor Erik Prince. Prince’s company, Constellis (formerly known as Blackwater), became infamous following a massacre of civilians carried out by its mercenaries in Baghdad in 2007. Noboa has also replicated some of US President Donald Trump’s deportation tactics, returning more than 600 Colombian prisoners to their country in late July with no official notice.
To bolster this push to make Ecuador a military state, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Neom recently visited the country and signed a deal to fight organized crime and illegal migration. The deal includes training for Ecuadoran security forces in the US and collaboration on border security.
With the empire from the North behind his moves, Noboa has not only eliminated basic human rights but has pushed Ecuador to the brink.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English