Ecuador declares curfew in coastal provinces for security operations

QUITO, March 13 (Reuters) – Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa on Friday decreed a nighttime curfew in four provinces of the Andean country, starting March 15, intended to facilitate military operations against criminal organizations with support from the United States.

The measure covers the coastal provinces of Guayas, El Oro, Santo Domingo, and Los Rios – the country’s main drug trafficking routes – and will run from 11 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time.

Joint military operations between Ecuador and the U.S. started in early March. A recent mission near the Colombian border resulted in the destruction of a drug trafficking camp, according to the Ecuadorean Ministry of Defense.

The site was operated by a group known as the Border Commandos, comprised of FARC dissidents, and had the capacity to house 50 people, the ministry added. 

    Noboa has made military repression against organized crime a cornerstone of his administration. As part of his hardline stance he has criticized the government of neighboring Colombia for failing to combat drug trafficking, and implemented tariffs on Colombian imports.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia, Editing by Natalia Siniawski)