Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso announced in a speech Saturday the expansion of the state of emergency to the country's largest port city and two other provinces plagued by drug trafficking and crime.

The areas concerned by the decision include the coastal city of Guayaquil and two surrounding towns, Duran and Samburondon, as well as the provinces of Santa Elena and Los Rios in the west of the country, as explained by President Laso in his speech broadcast on television and radio.

Laso did not specify the duration of the state of emergency, which will enter into force on Sunday, and requires a curfew between one and five in the morning (06:00 and 10:00 GMT).

The constitution allows the president to declare a state of emergency and request the army's intervention when the country faces serious internal unrest.

"We have a common enemy, which is delinquency, drug trafficking and organized crime," Laso said.

A state of emergency was declared in Guayaquil three times in 2022.

The province of Esmeraldas (northwest), bordering Colombia, which is one of the areas most affected by crime and drug trafficking, has also been subject to a state of emergency for 60 days since the beginning of March.

Ecuador, which lies between Colombia and Peru - the world's two largest cocaine producers - seized 210 tons of the drug in 2021, most of it from cocaine destined for European ports.

The quantities of confiscated drugs exceeded 200 tons in 2022, which led the government to declare war on smugglers who fiercely defend drug routes.

At the same time, the murder rate nearly doubled. Between 2021 and 2022, the rate increased from 14 to 25 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the authorities.

And Guayaquil, which is considered the commercial center of the country and the center for shipping the bulk of the drugs, is one of the regions with the greatest prevalence of crime. In the places covered by the state of emergency, 434 murders were recorded between January and mid-March out of 1,151 murders nationwide in the same period.

On Saturday, the Ecuadorian president also announced an amendment to a decree to allow "the possession and carrying of weapons for civil use in self-defence" and the use of incendiary pepper spray.

"I am as worried as you are about the lack of security," said President Laso, who is promoting a "wide campaign for security," stressing that "the Ecuadorian government considers your peace and reassurance as vital."

At the same time, he affirmed the prohibition of the manufacture, registration and possession of hand-made weapons.

Laso added that the authorities had identified 15 organized crime leaders whom they considered "valuable targets", including six who had been arrested.

At the end of his speech, Laso, who is undergoing impeachment proceedings in the opposition-dominated National Assembly on suspicion of embezzlement of funds, stressed, "We will fight criminals with all the force of the law because our priority is to reassure you."

Representatives previously tried to dismiss Laso in June 2022, but the divided opposition failed to gather enough votes.

At the height of indigenous demonstrations against the high cost of living, a group of deputies submitted a motion to dismiss him. But the proposal did not receive the support of 92 deputies - out of 137 - as required by the constitution to remove the president.