Noboa insists crime fighting strategy is showing results, citing ‘crucial’ partnership with the U.S.

Although President Daniel Noboa emphasized health care, transportation and education in his annual Report to the Nation Sunday, he said his hardline approach to fighting drug trafficking and violence has shown “real results.” Noboa cited the extradition of a dozen crime bosses to the United States and the seizure of almost 300 tons of drugs as examples of what he described as a decisive and effective approach to combat organized crime.

President Daniel Noboa claims his hardline approach to fighting crime is working.

“We will seek them out, find them and extradite them or put them in prison,” Noboa said of drug traffickers, adding that the country cannot develop “if families live in fear” due to organized crime.

Noboa said he will continue to impose states of emergency to allow the military to use crime-fighting strategies, including property searches without warrants.

He claimed that Ecuador’s partnership with the U.S. has been crucial in the fight against organized crime. He cited intelligence-sharing with the U.S. for increasing drug seizures and for identifying drug-trafficking hideouts.

Earlier this year, Ecuador’s military carried out a joint operation with U.S. forces against a training camp allegedly used by Colombian drug traffickers, attacking the site with drones, helicopters and boats. Some news outlets, including the New York Times and the Guardian, claimed the target was misidentified and was actually a pig farm.

Ecuador has struggled to contain drug violence since 2021 as rival cartels partner with local gangs and battle for control of routes and coastal ports used to smuggle cocaine. Wedged between Colombia and Peru, the world’s top cocaine producing countries, drug trafficker are using Ecuador’s sea ports to ship cocaine to Europe and the U.S.

Last year, Ecuador recorded its highest homicide rate in decades of 50 murders per every 100,000 residents, according to the Ministry of the Interior. More than 90% of the murders occurred in the country’s coastal region, near the ports and on drug transport routes to the ports.

Noboa has come under criticism from civil society groups, who say his iron-fisted methods have failed to reduce crime, while putting civilians in danger.

Glaedys González, an analyst for the Andean region at the International Crisis Group, on Sunday said Noboa may have been optimistic in his speech regarding the country’s security, but “progress on violence is far from being achieved,” she said. “It is evident that the situation in Ecuador has reached unprecedented levels.”

International crime monitoring services such as InSight Crime and the United Nations Drug Office question the effectiveness of Noboa’s strategy. “There is no indication that the amount of cocaine shipped from Ecuador’s ports has decreased and it may have actually increased in the past two years,” InSight Crime reported in April. “Until the government cleans up corruption on the docks of Guayaquil, Manta and Machala, the country is unlikely to see significant reduction in crime.”

The United Nations said that states of emergency are “rarely effective” against crime. “Their best use is for natural disasters and social disorder,” it said.

Noboa on Sunday also promoted economic progress, claiming that poverty dropped from 26% to 21.4% in 2025 while extreme poverty went down from 10.4% to 8.4%. In response, a coalition of advocacy groups claimed the numbers were “not supported by the facts” and that economic conditions in the country are deteriorating.