President Daniel Noboa, leader of Ecuador, declared a state of emergency in seven out of the country’s 24 provinces on Wednesday due to the intensifying internal armed conflict. These provinces include Guayas, El Oro, Santa Elena, Manabí, Sucumbíos, Orellana, Los Ríos and the canton of Camilo Ponce Enríquez in the province of Azuay. This decree was issued after law enforcement agencies identified that regular legal mechanisms were insufficient to control the threat.
According to Article 2 of Executive Decree 275, under this localized state of emergency, constitutional rights to the inviolability of the home and privacy of correspondence have been suspended. Hence, National Police and Armed Forces are not required to obtain judicial authorization to enter private homes and intercept correspondence within the affected regions. Moreover, a comprehensive report outlining the executed operations and associated factors will be submitted to the Public Security and State Council at the end of this state of emergency.
In a video on his X account (formerly Twitter), President Noboa explained this declaration in detail. According to the president, criminal gangs have deeply entrenched themselves in these seven provinces, despite opposition from the military. As such, the state of exception has been put into place to allow the Armed Forces and Police greater latitude to act swiftly, even when such actions may not be legal during peacetime.
Previously, Noboa had made similar statements, expressing that while human rights were of utmost importance, he would not allow them to be exploited as a disguise to commit murder, nor would he permit any attacks on police and armed forces personnel.
Prominent human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), have chronicled a series of gross rights violations by security forces since the declaration of the internal armed conflict. Under Article 3 of Executive Decree 275, the National Human Rights Authority is scheduled to systematize and report on armed attacks, threats and hazards emanating from organized crime syndicates, non-state actors, and terrorist groups during the non-international armed conflict. Yet, HRW’s research suggests that many more exceptions have likely occurred since the announcement of the state of internal armed conflict. HRW also reports that over the past four months, numerous detainees were denied their legal rights and were not brought before prosecutors or judges.
Furthermore, according to HRW, many individuals experienced unofficial, brief detentions and reprisals, beatings, or other degrading treatment at the hands of soldiers and police officers. Thus, HRW has urged Noboa to curtail the armed forces’ role strictly to situations of absolute necessity.
It’s noteworthy to mention that on January 8, 2024, Noboa had declared a nationwide state of emergency through Decree 110. This covered detention facilities under the Social Rehabilitation System, instigated by escalating turmoil following a regional prison breakout in Guayaquil by Adolfo Macías. The subsequent day, Decree 111 formally identified an internal armed conflict in Ecuador, informed by a police assessment that criminal organizations showed a “minimum level of organization” and involved in armed confrontations correlated to organized crime activities between 2014 to 2023.