Daily coverage from across the country, written for the expat community
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President Noboa signed Decreto 353 on April 2, declaring a 60-day state of exception across nine provinces and four cantons. Warrantless searches are now legal in affected areas, though no curfew has been imposed. Expats in Pichincha, Guayas, Manabi, and other covered provinces should understand what rights have been suspended.
Ecuador's Interior Ministry reports a 28% decline in homicides for March 2026, alongside 4,300 arrests and 2,200 warrants executed. The numbers represent real progress, but the baseline is staggering: 2025 saw 9,216 homicides, making Ecuador one of the deadliest countries in Latin America.
Gunmen opened fire at a sports complex on Avenida 25 de Julio in southern Guayaquil, killing multiple people and wounding several others, including minors. The attack bears the hallmarks of gang violence and underscores why southern Guayaquil remains Ecuador's most dangerous urban zone.
Barcelona SC opens its Copa Libertadores Group D campaign against Brazilian side Cruzeiro at the Estadio Monumental on Tuesday. BSC enters on a high after a 2-0 win over Liga de Quito, while Cruzeiro is struggling. The match carries significant economic implications for Guayaquil.
Police in Guayaquil dismantled a massive phone theft operation involving 25,000 stolen devices valued at over $3 million. Authorities recovered approximately 30% of the phones through device tracking. The scale reveals how organized phone theft has become -- and why basic security practices matter for every resident.
President Noboa signed Decree 353 on April 2, declaring a 60-day state of emergency across 9 provinces and 4 additional cantons. Unlike the previous emergency that ended March 30, this renewal does not include a curfew -- but it does authorize police raids and suspends home inviolability in affected areas.
Ecuador became the first Latin American country to sign a security cooperation agreement with Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency. Published in the Official Register on March 30, the deal enables joint operations against transnational organized crime and has already produced results -- including the dismantling of a cocaine network tied to Los Lobos and Albanian criminal organizations.
Police K-9 units intercepted nearly 22,000 dried shark fins weighing 1,905 kilograms at Guayaquil's Jose Joaquin de Olmedo International Airport on April 2. The shipment -- 75 bundles disguised as fish bladders -- was bound for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is one of Ecuador's largest shark fin seizures in recent years.
U.S.-Ecuador joint military operations under Operation Southern Spear have drawn international scrutiny after an NYT investigation revealed a promoted 'drug camp' strike actually hit a dairy farm. The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances has raised concerns about military abuses under repeated states of emergency.
Ecuador's government announced intentional homicides dropped 28% in March 2026 year-over-year, following a two-week nightly curfew in four provinces. The curfew provinces -- Guayas, Los Rios, El Oro, and Santo Domingo -- are not major expat areas, but the security trend is nationally significant.
The two-week nightly curfew across four coastal provinces ends March 30, concluding the largest single anti-narcotics mobilization in South American history. 75,000 soldiers and police were deployed with U.S. Reaper drone support and FBI intelligence.
The FBI opened a permanent office at the U.S. Embassy in Quito on March 12, assigning a full-time agent to coordinate joint investigations targeting drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, and money laundering. Ecuador simultaneously created a new National Police unit to work alongside the bureau.
