Ecuador’s government moved Monday to tighten security in four provinces hit by drug violence, deploying 75,000 soldiers and police to enforce a nightly curfew banning people from leaving their homes from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., officials said. The curfew began Sunday night in Guayas, El Oro, Los Ríos and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and is expected to last two weeks, according to the Interior Ministry.
Officials said the curfew does not apply to Quito or the touristic Galápagos Islands, even as it covers Guayaquil, Ecuador’s most populous city. Interior Ministry officials also said 253 people were arrested for breaking the curfew, with the arrests reported in the first day of enforcement.
Interior Minister John Reimberg described security operations tied to the curfew, saying Ecuadorian troops used authorized artillery to destroy three identified targets. He told journalists, “Let whatever must fall, fall — and whoever must fall, fall,” and said the operations resulted in no recorded casualties. Reimberg provided no specific details about the nature of the strikes.
The curfew and troop deployment reflect Ecuador’s broader effort to confront drug trafficking and escalating violence along the country’s coast. The government said Ecuador is struggling to contain drug violence as rival cartels battle for control of coastal ports used to smuggle cocaine to the United States.
Ecuador’s Interior Ministry said last year the country recorded its highest homicide rate in decades, at 50 murders per every 100,000 residents. The AP report said the homicide rate has quintupled since the COVID-19 pandemic as cartels from Colombia and Mexico compete for drug trafficking routes and work with local gangs.
President Daniel Noboa, a conservative leader, has also extended a state of exception that enables the military to conduct joint patrols with police officers and enter homes without a search warrant. Noboa has blamed some of the violence on neighboring Colombia, accusing its government of not doing enough to stop cartels operating along the border between the two countries. In January, Noboa imposed tariffs on Colombian imports and said they would not be lifted until the security situation along the border improves.
Ecuador’s military earlier this month said it carried out a joint operation with the United States against a training camp used by Colombian drug traffickers, including attacking the site with drones, helicopters and boats. Officials said the camp was located on Ecuador’s side of the border and belonged to Comandos de la Frontera, a group that split off from the FARC after the FARC signed a peace deal with Colombia’s government in 2016.
Ecuador’s security approach has drawn criticism from civil society groups, which say Noboa’s crackdown has failed to reduce crime and has put civilians at risk. In one case last year that raised questions about Noboa’s methods, eleven soldiers were sentenced to more than 30 years in prison over the abduction of four children, whose bodies were found outside a military base near Guayaquil.