Because of escalating crime, Ecuador's president has proclaimed a state of emergency in three western regions.
A curfew will be enforced, and hundreds of army and police personnel will be dispatched to Guayas, Manab, and Esmeraldas to "establish peace and order," according to Guillermo Lasso.
Murders and gang-related criminality have increased dramatically in Ecuador.
Mr Lasso has used emergency powers to quell unrest for the second time since taking office last year.
Mr Lasso tweeted, "The streets will feel the weight of the security troops." Ecuador's armed forces would send 4,000 police officers and 5,000 troops across the three provinces, he added.
He also stated that the curfew will be imposed from 23:00 to 05:00 local time, but only in particular regions. He wrote, "Society will not be conquered." "We will never give up our tranquilly to criminal gangs."
Ecuador's crime issues, according to President Lasso, are due to drug trafficking. The Andean country is utilised as a transit route for cocaine transported from neighbouring Peru and Colombia, and local gangs are alleged to be used by major Mexican drug cartels.
Insight Crime has classified Guayaquil, Ecuador's port city in the Guayas region, as the world's 50th most dangerous city. According to an investigative journalism website, Ecuador's homicide rate grew faster than any other Latin American or Caribbean country in 2021.
Several individuals were found beheaded in Duran, near Guayaquil, in February, and two men were discovered chained and dangling from a pedestrian bridge, a tactic used by Mexican drug gangs.
Ecuador has also had the bloodiest prison riots in its history, shocking the public and revealing the might of gangs operating in its prisons.
119 detainees were slain at a Guayaquil jail in September. At least 68 prisoners were killed in new violence at the same institution less than two months later.
Following the jail riots in October, President Lasso announced a statewide state of emergency for 60 days. The Constitutional Court, on the other hand, slammed the crackdown, halving the emergency duration to 30 days and stating that the military should only support police operations.