The Government of Daniel Noboa published the decree that will restrict circulation between May 3 and 18, for six hours a day (from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.), in nine provinces and four municipalities of the country, including the capital. The measure is part of the state of emergency declared by the Executive, which justifies it as part of its fight against organized crime. In the night zone, authorities say, there is "a concentrated pattern of violence."

First modification: 04/30/2026 - 02:11 Last modification: 04/30/2026 - 02:18

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Within the framework of a state of exception that, in at least one locality in Ecuador, has governed for more than 70% of the time of its administration, the Government of Daniel Noboa formalized the implementation of a night curfew in nine provinces and four municipalities of the country.

The measure, which had been announced on April 20, was made official in decree 370, which establishes that circulation will be restricted between May 3 and 18, in the time slot from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.

The ban includes the capital and covers the provinces of Pichincha, Guayas, Manabí, Santa Elena, Los Ríos, El Oro, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Esmeraldas and Sucumbíos, the latter two located on the border with Colombia.

Additionally, it will be applied in the municipalities of La Maná (Cotopaxi), Las Naves (Bolívar), Echeandía (Bolívar) and La Troncal (Cañar).

As a result, in the aforementioned time segment, freedom of transit is added to two other fundamental rights that are suspended under the state of emergency decreed at the beginning of April: the inviolability of home and correspondence.

The only ones exempt from the restriction are health services, public forces and risk, emergency and disaster management bodies. Likewise, the decree provides for the coordination of actions that guarantee the continuity of public services, the administration of justice and the operation of strategic sectors.

The reasons for the curfew

When he announced the measure on April 20, President Daniel Noboa stated that the objective is to "deepen operational actions and continue dealing decisive blows to criminal structures."

In the decree, the Government maintains that, according to intelligence reports, "the configuration of a concentrated pattern of violence is evident" between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. "in the jurisdictions in which the state of emergency currently governs."

In figures provided by the Police, which also includes the text, between April 1 and 20, in that time period, "a total of 76 intentional homicides were recorded", with the province of Guayas being the most affected, with 40.

Although it highlights that this represents 15% less than the same period in 2025, the nine provinces reached by the measure "concentrate 90% of violence at the national level and 86.70% of crime."

According to the intelligence cited in the decree, there is also a "'post-curfew' effect" linked to the restriction that was in effect between March 15 and 30 in Guayas, Los Ríos, El Oro and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.

In that case, as the text justifies, when the fence expired, "the criminal actors redirected their activities to provinces that were not covered by this measure," so "there was no structural neutralization but rather a geographical displacement of criminal activities."

Taking these reasons into account, the Executive sees the night curfew as necessary to reduce the risk to the civilian population and strengthen "focused patrolling, preventive intelligence and control of critical spaces, with the aim of anticipating and mitigating the occurrence of violent events."

A controversial strategy with uncertain results

Ecuador has become accustomed to living under a state of emergency, maintained alternately in a large part of its territory, since 2024, when Daniel Noboa declared the existence of an "internal armed conflict", to deploy soldiers in the streets and intensify the fight against criminal gangs, which he began to call "terrorists."

In that context, and to a lesser extent, the curfew was a recurring option. Between April and June 2025, 22 cantons (localities) were governed by this restriction, while in September of that year the ban was imposed on five provinces in the Sierra, amid indigenous protests against the elimination of the diesel subsidy.

This year, as mentioned previously, the measure was applied to Guayas, El Oro, Los Ríos and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, between March 15 and 30.

In that period, according to official information, more than 1,800 detainees were registered, largely for violating the restriction; Hundreds of weapons and thousands of ammunition, cash and fuel were seized; At least five clandestine runways and 56 mine openings where minerals were illegally extracted were destroyed, among other actions.

Despite the aggressive strategy adopted by the Noboa Government – ​​which this year has added specific cases of collaboration with the United States to bomb alleged organized crime positions – Ecuador ended 2025 with a record of homicides, around 9,300, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior.

Likewise, organizations have denounced excesses by public forces and other human rights violations, including in prisons, whose conditions have been toughened by the government.

In an interview with AFP, Interior Minister John Reimberg dismissed the criticism and promised: "We are not going to agree, we are going to attack them, we are going to weaken them."

"What do you authoritarians want to tell us? I have to respond to the country with security," he said.

With EFE, AFP and local media

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