As murder rate surges in 2025, almost 90% of homicides are recorded in five coastal provinces

Despite repeated states of emergency declared by the government, murders have increased 43% in the first seven months of 2025 compared to the same period of 2024. According to the latest National Police, statistics almost all of the increase has been recorded in Ecuador’s coastal provinces.

Police investigate murders in Manabí Province in June.

Guayas, Manabí, El Oro, Los Rios and Esmeraldas Provinces, centers for drug trafficking, led the increase and recorded 88% of all murders, with Guayas, Manabí Provinces topping the list.

In comments on the latest numbers, the National Police said the “modest decline in murders in 2024 has been erased in 2025” due power struggles between criminal gangs. It noted the “troubling phenomena” of mass shootings in Guayas and Manabí Provinces, where large numbers of innocent people have been killed.

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Murders by provinces in 2024 and 2025, with rate of increase or decrease (El Comercio)

Guayas Province, the location of the country’s largest shipping port, recorded the most murders through July 2025, with 2,507, a 49% increase from the 1,679 recorded in the first seven months of 2024. Manabí Province reported 694 murders in 2025 compared to 466 in 2024.

“Criminal dynamics focus violent crime in Ecuador’s coastal region as result of the drug transport and staging routes,” the police report said. “This has been the case since 2021 but the difference in late 2024 and 2025 is the territorial struggle between gangs due to the capture or death of gang leaders. The struggles are intensified by the rising market price of cocaine.”

The report said the most violent conflicts are between the Los Lobos and Los Choneros gangs.

Although murder rates have increased in most of Ecuador, the police report said that murders in most of the country’s 24 provinces have remained at “low, historical levels.”

Three provinces, Azuay, Cañar and Napo, recorded a drop in the number of murders in 2025.