Ecuador has deployed 4,000 additional police officers and soldiers to Quito in an emergency security push following a spate of gruesome killings in the capital, President Daniel Noboa announced on Monday.
The Quito Protection Plan assigns 2,000 police and 2,000 military personnel to patrol neighbourhoods identified as criminal strongholds, concentrating operations during peak-mobility windows from 4 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. The force will be supported by 100 vehicles and motorcycles and 20 drones.
Interior Minister John Reimberg said the situation in Quito was not yet critical but would not be allowed to become so. The deployment follows the discovery last week of a dismembered body hung from a city bridge, and comes as Quito and parts of up to ten provinces remain under a state of exception imposed since mid-June. Ecuador recorded 51 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2025, according to InSight Crime.