Noboa extends state of exception for 30 days in eight provinces

President Daniel Noboa Azin extended the state of exception due to grave internal commotion in eight provinces of the country for an additional thirty days through Executive Decree No. 532. The decree, signed in Guayaquil on November 11, 2026, was published in the Official Registry —Fifth Supplement No. 408— on Thursday, November 12, and keeps the Armed Forces and the National Police operating in a coordinated manner within the territory.

The extension is based on Executive Decree No. 498 of September 15, 2026, which declared the state of exception for sixty days and was declared constitutional by the Constitutional Court in Opinion No. 6-26-EE/26 on September 29, 2026. The new decree stipulates that it will enter into force “upon the expiration of the initial term” provided in that instrument, without prejudice to its publication.

In that same opinion, the Constitutional Court declared the unconstitutionality of the inclusion of the cantons of Camilo Ponce Enríquez (Azuay), Las Naves (Bolívar), and La Maná (Cotopaxi) within the territorial scope of the declaration. The renewal corrects this point and expressly limits the measures to the eight provinces.

Territorial scope and suspended rights

Executive Decree No. 532 provides for the application of articles 3, 5, and 6 of Executive Decree No. 498 in the following jurisdictions:

• El Oro, Esmeraldas, Guayas, Los Ríos, Manabí, Pichincha, Santa Elena, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.
• Suspension of the right to the inviolability of the home.
• Suspension of the right to the inviolability of correspondence.
• Employment and intervention of the Armed Forces in coordination with the National Police.
• Temporary requisition of goods and services of lawful origin, as a measure of last resort and subject to a written order, inventory, and return.

The extension does not include the suspension of the right to freedom of movement, which in the original decree applied only between September 17 and September 30, 2026, in El Oro, Guayas, Los Ríos, and Manabí, between 00:00 and 05:00.

The reports supporting the extension

The decree is based on Intelligence Report No. STIE-DOAIE-IE-26-019 and Legal Report No. INFORME-CNI-CGJ-S-011-2026, from the National Intelligence Center, both dated November 6, 2026; Report No. PN-SCG-CEO-2026-0501-INF from the National Police, dated November 4; and reports from the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, including No. CCFFAA-J-3-PM-2026-231-INF.

The official figures supporting the measure include:

• 136,277 emergencies coordinated by the ECU 911 between October 14 and November 4, 2026, across the eight provinces, of which 67.38% corresponded to citizen security.
• 191 relevant news events identified between October 14 and November 10: 91 reports of violent incidents and 100 regarding results from the Security Block.
• 886 intentional homicides in El Oro between January and September 2026, compared to 545 in the same period of 2025, an increase of 62.6%.

Electoral rules, emergencies, and execution

The decree orders that the exceptional measures be applied without restricting the electoral campaign activities for the 2027 sectional elections, the functioning of electoral bodies, or political rights. It also mandates permanent coordination with the National Secretariat for Risk Management to avoid hindering the response to emergencies caused by the El Niño phenomenon, declared a national priority via Executive Decree No. 485 on August 31, 2026.

Execution is entrusted to the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of the Interior, the National Police, and the Armed Forces. The decree will be notified to the National Assembly, the Constitutional Court, the United Nations, and the Organization of American States, and its fourth general provision mandates informing the citizenry about the suspension of rights and requisitions.

With this renewal, the exceptional regime is extended for thirty more days in the eight jurisdictions hardest hit by criminal violence, with military and police deployed in the streets and without a full return to the ordinary regime. For the population of those provinces, raids without prior judicial warrants and the review of correspondence under constitutional control remain in place, while the Constitutional Court and the National Assembly are required to be informed of the content of Executive Decree No. 532.

Source: Official Registry, Fifth Supplement No. 408, November 12, 2026, section I, p. 7 (official reference: Executive Decree No. 532).