Ecuador Launches Anti-Drug Operation with 75,000 Troops

Ecuadorian authorities launched a large-scale military operation against drug trafficking networks on Sunday night, deploying 75,000 soldiers and police officers across four coastal provinces plagued by violence. The two-week effort, supported by the United States, includes nighttime curfews from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. in Guayas, El Oro, Los Ríos, and Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, with violators facing up to three years in prison. The measures aim to disrupt cartel activities in key cocaine transit routes, and officials reported 253 arrests on the first day, primarily for curfew violations and illegal weapons possession.

The operation marks an escalation in President Daniel Noboa's campaign to curb narcotrafficking, which has fueled a surge in homicides. Ecuador recorded 9,235 murders in 2025, the highest annual total on record, with a rate of 50 killings per 100,000 residents, according to the Interior Ministry. The country serves as a major pathway for an estimated 70 percent of global cocaine shipments originating from neighboring Colombia and Peru, as cartels from those nations and Mexico compete for control of Pacific ports like Guayaquil, the capital of Guayas province.