President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, has decreed a new "state of exception" for 60 days across most of the country due to a serious internal disturbance and an increase in narco-criminal violence. The measure, which took effect this Thursday, January 1, suspends fundamental rights such as the inviolability of the home and correspondence in strategic provinces on the coast, the sierra, and the Amazon. According to the Armed Forces report that supports the decision, organized crime groups like "Los Lobos", "Choneros", and "Tiguerones" have maintained a sustained escalation of attacks with explosives, multiple homicides in public spaces, and direct attacks on officials throughout 2025. Official police figures reveal the magnitude of the crisis: between November 1 and December 23, 2025 alone, 1,232 intentional homicides were recorded in the intervention zones. With this new provision, the Noboa government seeks to carry out high-intensity operations to dismantle criminal structures and regain territorial control in the face of what it defined as a "deliberate strategy of intimidation and challenge" to state authority.
