Ecuador remains a high-risk environment for protective operations. Per the FCDO's 10 June 2026 guidance, it advises against all but essential travel to a swathe of the country: the coastal provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí, Santa Elena, Guayas, El Oro, Los Ríos and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas (airside transit at Guayaquil airport excepted), and areas within 20km of the Ecuador-Colombia border, with limited specified exceptions.
The backdrop: open-source reporting indicates homicides rose sharply through 2025, leaving Ecuador near its highest-ever rate, with the number of identifiable gangs up 54% between 2023 and 2024 as criminal structures fragmented. Kidnapping and extortion stay elevated, and prison violence has been severe. The government has run successive emergency measures since declaring an internal armed conflict in January 2024.
Operator implication: treat the coastal corridor and Guayaquil as the centre of gravity for the threat, and the Colombia border zone as do-not-enter without specific justification. Express kidnapping, armed robbery and extortion are the realistic threats to principals and staff, often in transit. Keep movement low-profile, avoid predictable patterns, use vetted ground transport, and brief teams on express-kidnap drills and ATM-withdrawal coercion. Confirm that travel insurance is not invalidated by moving against FCDO advice, and verify the current advice at source before deployment as the risk map is updated frequently.
