The FCDO continues to advise against all but essential travel to seven of Ecuador's coastal provinces — Esmeraldas, Manabí, Santa Elena, Guayas, El Oro, Los Ríos and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas — and to areas within 20km of the Ecuador-Colombia border, with limited named exceptions. The most recent FCDO update (10 June) removed the previous state-of-emergency and Colombia border-closure notices, but the area-based travel advice stands.
The violence is not confined to urban cores. On 3 June, eight bodies — including two minors — were found near Babahoyo in Guayas; the victims, farmers travelling between Daule and Milagro, were reportedly targeted by the Los Lobos gang in its conflict with Los Choneros, per Ecuador's interior minister. Cartel violence reaching rural transit routes is the trend operators should note.
Operator implication: for any task in the coastal provinces, plan on FCDO "advise against all but essential travel" standing — which carries insurance consequences for travel against that advice. Treat inter-city road movement in Guayas and Los Ríos as a primary exposure, not the destination. Airside transit through Guayaquil airport is excluded from the advisory, which keeps transit routings viable where a ground task isn't essential.
