On 9 January 2024, an armed conflict broke out in Ecuador involving the country's government against several organized crime groups, most notably the Los Choneros cartel.

Reports of armed attacks throughout Guayaquil and other parts of the country were widespread, occurring primarily in prisons, markets, roads, and universities.

According to political analyst Fernando Carrion, from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, the turning point came when Lenín Moreno came into office in 2017.

While the poverty rate had fallen from 35% to 21% between 2007 and 2017, the combined effects of a reduction in public spending under the presidencies of Moreno and Guillermo Lasso and the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed it back up to 27% in 2023.

Due to better control of the Colombian government over transportation hubs, drug trafficking from Colombia decreased and its operations moved to Ecuador.

[17] According to Vox, the lower demand for cocaine in the United States alongside the Colombian peace process created a power vacuum that saw Albanian, Mexican and Venezuelan criminal groups attempt to control drug trafficking routes out of Ecuador.

[18] Former interior minister and head of the National Police of Peru, Eduardo Pérez Rocha, said after the conflict began that the increased violence in Ecuador was due to the presence of the international Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, resulting with a higher intensity of criminal activity.

[19] Since 2018, Ecuador has faced a historic wave of violence as the country has become a critical cocaine transit point, and organized crime groups compete for control of drug routes and prisons.

[23] On 2 November 2022 President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas for the next 45 days following the killings of five police officers and the abduction of several prison guards by organized crime members.

[15][25] On 9 January, Fabricio Colón Pico [es], the leader of another criminal group, Los Lobos, also escaped from prison in Riobamba four days after he had been arrested for plotting to kill Attorney-General Diana Salazar Méndez.

[26][27] Following the escape, President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency to last for 60 days,[14] granting authorities the power to suspend people's rights and allowing the military to be mobilized inside prisons.

[15] According to The Washington Post, intelligence analysts said that the attacks may have been triggered at least in part by a recent investigation into links between drug traffickers, criminal gangs, and political operators.

The operation, known as Metastasis, led to the arrests of at least 20 top security officials and judges in December 2023 for alleged criminal activity benefiting a drug trafficker.

[30][31] On the same day, Los Choneros gunmen[13] forcibly entered a TC Televisión studio in Guayaquil, where they took journalists hostage during a live newscast.

During an attack near Ceibos Hospital, the singer Diego Gallardo (also known as "Aire del Golfo") and a high school student were shot and wounded.

[37] Concurrently, another group took police officers hostage, coercing them to read a message characterizing the events as a reaction to Noboa's declared state of emergency.

[41] Banks, markets, and shops were closed throughout the country in cities such as Quito and Guayaquil to protect merchants and customers from armed attacks.

[57] On 24 March, Brigitte García, the mayor of San Vicente, was found dead with gunshot wounds in her car in Manabí Province, along with her staffer Jairo Loor.

[63] On 2 June, Cristhian Nieto, alternate assemblyman for Mónica Salazar, alongside his wife Nicole Burgos and a bystander Steven Mendoza were killed inside a circus in Manta, Manabí Province.

[69] On 28 November, a 17-year-old girl was abducted by four local gang members near her home in Cota Mil, she was then robbed, forced out of the car and shot several times, her body was discovered the following morning.