Noboa extends state of emergency in four provinces as coastal murder rate soars in first half of 2025

President Daniel Noboa has extended the state of emergency in El Oro, Guayas, Los Ríos and Manabí Provinces. The declaration will be in force for 60 days.

The new emergency comes as the number of murders has soared in the four provinces, increasing 45% nationally in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period of 2024. It also follows several mass shootings in which all those killed were listed as “collateral victims,” and not targets of the shooters.

“It is a very dangerous situation for residents in communities most affected by crime,” says Interior Minister John Reimberg. “It is frustrating for law enforcement due to the new tactics used by the terrorists.”

According to police and law enforcement experts, much of the increase in violence is the result of the arrest of Los Choneros gang boss José Adolfo Macías, alias ‘Fito’. His arrest and deportation has created a leadership vacuum that the Los Choneros and Los Lobos gangs are fighting to fill, they say. “The gangs are battling for domination of drug transport routes as well as who is in charge of operations,” says Juan Ramos, a National Police captain in Manabí Province. “It is a bloody fight and innocent people are being caught in the crossfire.”

Renato Rivera, a researcher for the Global Initiative Against Organized Crime, says the government’s response to organized in the past 18 months has been ineffective. “Officials continue to claim success, but this is a mirage,” he said. “Putting soldiers on the street has lost its effectiveness. The government needs a more sophisticated approach to the crisis.”

Rivera says two mass killings in Guayas Province in the past month are especially troubling. “Until this year, most of the killings have been targeted, usually gang members and sometimes government officials or extortion victims. Now, gang shooters are murdering large numbers of innocent people for the sake of hitting a single target. This is a reminder of Colombia in the 1990s.”

In the largest mass shootings, 19 people died, including a 12-year-old boy, July 27 in El Empalme in northern Guayas Province. Two weeks earlier, nine men were gunned down in a Playas pool hall, west of Guayaquil.

Despite the bleak crime reports, the number of murders has fallen in 2025 in nine of the country’s 24 provinces, including Azuay and Loja Provinces.