I live in Cuenca, Ecuador. I walk to the market most mornings, eat lunch downtown, and come home after dark without thinking twice about it. My daily experience of safety here is comparable to—honestly, better than—many mid-sized American cities I’ve lived in. But I’d be doing you a disservice if I left it at that, because Ecuador’s national security situation has changed dramatically since 2023, and you deserve the full picture before making a decision this important.
The short answer: it depends entirely on where in Ecuador you’re talking about. The highland cities where most retirees settle—Cuenca especially—remain remarkably safe. Coastal areas near major ports have experienced serious cartel-driven violence. These are fundamentally different realities within the same country, and lumping them together tells you nothing useful.
What Actually Happened (2023–2025)
Ecuador’s security situation deteriorated sharply beginning in 2023. The country’s national homicide rate reached approximately 44 per 100,000 by 2025—among the highest in Latin America and a dramatic increase from the single-digit rates Ecuador maintained just a decade earlier. In January 2024, a state of emergency was declared after armed groups stormed a television studio in Guayaquil on live broadcast, an event that made international headlines and understandably alarmed anyone considering a move to Ecuador.
The cause is well-documented: Ecuador’s coast became a transit corridor for cocaine moving from Colombia and Peru to international markets. Organized criminal groups—some with ties to Mexican cartels—established operations around the port of Guayaquil, and the violence that followed was concentrated in those coastal trafficking zones. Provinces like Guayas, Esmeraldas, Los Ríos, and Manabí bore the brunt of the crisis. The Ecuadorian military deployed to these areas, and the government declared multiple states of emergency between 2023 and 2025.
I won’t pretend the headlines didn’t affect Cuenca. People talked about it. Some expats left. But when I looked at what was actually happening around me—my neighborhood, my daily routines, the crime reports from Azuay province—the local reality didn’t match the national narrative.
This is the critical distinction that gets lost in news coverage: Ecuador’s violence is not evenly distributed. It is overwhelmingly concentrated in specific coastal provinces tied to drug trafficking infrastructure. Highland cities like Cuenca, which sit at 8,000 feet in the Andes mountains with no port access and no strategic value to narco-trafficking networks, experienced the crisis very differently.
Cuenca: The Numbers Tell a Different Story
While Ecuador’s national homicide rate climbed, Azuay province—where Cuenca is the capital—moved in the opposite direction. In the first half of 2025, Azuay recorded a 54% reduction in homicides compared to the same period the prior year. A 2025 ranking of South American cities with populations over 500,000 rated Cuenca the safest. These aren’t marketing claims; they’re from government crime data and independent security analyses.
Why does Cuenca remain safe while other parts of Ecuador struggle? Geography plays a major role. The city is landlocked in the southern highlands, far from the coastal trafficking corridors that drive most of Ecuador’s violence. There’s also a strong local identity—Cuenca has historically had lower crime than the national average, a pattern that predates the current crisis. The city’s economy depends partly on tourism and the expat community, and local government has invested accordingly in public safety. Police presence is visible in the historic center and residential neighborhoods.
That said, Cuenca is not crime-free. Petty theft happens—phone snatching at crowded markets, pickpocketing on busy streets, occasional opportunistic bag theft. A few expats have had phones or wallets taken over the years. But violent crime against foreign residents is genuinely rare, and the incidents that do occur typically make the rounds of every expat Facebook group precisely because they’re unusual.
Beyond Cuenca: A City-by-City Reality
Quito is a major capital city of nearly three million people, and it has the crime profile you’d expect from a city that size. Safe neighborhoods absolutely exist—La Floresta, González Suárez, Cumbayá, the northern business districts—and many expats live there comfortably. But Quito has more aggressive petty crime than Cuenca, particularly in the historic center and on public transport. It’s a city where you need to maintain urban awareness at all times, more comparable to living in a mid-sized Latin American capital than the small-city feel of Cuenca.
Guayaquil and the surrounding Guayas province have borne the worst of Ecuador’s security crisis. The port city is where much of the organized criminal activity is concentrated, and homicide rates in Guayas are dramatically higher than in highland provinces. Safe enclaves exist—Samborondón is essentially a gated suburban city—but the overall security environment is significantly more challenging. Very few expat retirees choose Guayaquil for this reason, and I wouldn’t recommend it as a retirement destination in the current environment unless you have specific ties there.
Coastal beach towns vary widely. Some smaller communities like Olón or Puerto López remain quiet and low-crime. Others closer to major cities or known for party culture carry more risk. The coast generally requires more security awareness than the highlands. If beach living is your priority, research the specific town carefully and talk to current residents rather than relying on generalizations.
Vilcabamba and other small highland towns popular with expats tend to be very safe—small-town dynamics where everyone knows everyone. The trade-off is fewer services and amenities than a city like Cuenca.
What the US Government Says
The US State Department currently rates Ecuador at Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution. In 2024, the department added a “terrorism” risk indicator related to organized criminal group activity—a classification that reflects the cartel-driven violence rather than terrorism in the traditional sense. The advisory specifically notes higher-risk areas along the coast and Colombia border.
For context, Level 2 is the same advisory level applied to the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and dozens of other countries where millions of Americans travel and live without significant concern. Level 1 (Exercise Normal Precautions) applies to relatively few countries worldwide. The advisory is worth reading in full at travel.state.gov—it provides specific regional guidance that is more useful than the overall country rating.
I always tell clients: read the actual advisory, not just the headline level. The State Department distinguishes between regions of Ecuador for a reason. The advisory for Azuay province reads very differently than the advisory for Esmeraldas.
Practical Safety in Daily Life
The day-to-day safety precautions for living in Cuenca (or Quito, for that matter) are standard urban-awareness practices that anyone from a US city would already know. Keep your phone in your pocket rather than in your hand while walking. Use a crossbody bag in crowded areas. Don’t wear conspicuous jewelry. Take registered taxis or use ride apps rather than hailing unmarked cars. Be alert at busy markets and festivals. Lock your doors. These are habits, not hardships.
Home security in Cuenca is straightforward. Most apartments have a doorman or security entrance. Houses in residential neighborhoods use standard deadbolts; some add an alarm system for $20–40 per month. You don’t need razor wire, guard dogs, or fortress-level security. The single best security measure, as anywhere, is knowing your neighbors—Ecuadorian neighborhoods tend to be tight-knit, and that community awareness is worth more than any technology.
The emergency number is 911, which works nationwide. Police response in Cuenca’s urban core is generally prompt. The US Embassy is in Quito, with a consulate in Guayaquil. Register with the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) through the embassy so you receive security updates and can be contacted in an emergency.
The Honest Assessment
Ecuador’s national security situation is worse than it was five years ago. That’s a fact, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. The cartel-driven violence on the coast is real, serious, and not fully resolved. If your image of Ecuador is the peaceful, low-crime country it was in 2018, you need to update that picture.
But Cuenca—specifically, the highland city where the vast majority of American retirees settle—has remained remarkably insulated from that crisis. The data shows it. My daily experience confirms it. Thousands of American and European retirees live here and continue to arrive, not because they’re ignoring the news, but because they’ve done the research and understand the difference between a national statistic and a local reality.
If you’re considering Ecuador for retirement, my advice is simple: visit first. Spend two or three weeks in Cuenca on a tourist visa. Walk the streets, eat at the markets, talk to expats who’ve been here for years. Form your own impression rather than relying on headlines—or on anyone’s blog post, including mine. The safety question is ultimately personal, and the only way to answer it honestly is to experience the place yourself.
Check the current State Department advisory at travel.state.gov before any trip. Security situations evolve, and the most responsible thing I can do is point you to official, updated sources rather than pretend a blog post stays current indefinitely.