Ecuador’s electoral council has approved President Daniel Noboa’s request to hold a referendum on constitutional changes, setting up another fight over how far the government can go in its anti-crime agenda.
The event date is 2025-09-20. According to AP, voters will be asked whether the constitution should stop banning foreign military bases in Ecuador and whether the state should continue to be required to fund political parties. Those questions go to the heart of how Noboa wants to expand the state’s tools in the fight against drug-related violence.
Noboa has framed the referendum as part of a tougher approach to security. The report says his government has already militarized some of the country’s most violent cities, suspended certain civil liberties and declared drug gangs enemy combatants. Ecuador has seen a steep rise in violence in recent years, with homicide rates tripling since 2020 as criminal groups fight for control over Pacific smuggling routes and use ports to move cocaine toward Mexico.
The dispute is not only about security. It is also about constitutional process. Noboa’s decree earlier in the week included a request for voters to approve a constituent assembly that would rewrite the constitution. But Ecuador’s Constitutional Court suspended that request on Friday while it reviews several lawsuits. Noboa responded with a second decree on Saturday again calling for a referendum on a constituent assembly.
That sequence suggests a race between executive ambition and judicial review. A constitutional lawyer quoted in the report said the electoral council could end up blocking attempts by the court to stop the referendum. Whether that happens will matter because the referendum is not being treated as an isolated vote; it is part of a broader attempt to reshape Ecuador’s constitutional order.
The foreign-base question is particularly significant because Ecuador’s 2008 constitution, drafted under leftist leader Rafael Correa, made foreign military bases illegal. Noboa, who has signaled an interest in deeper military cooperation with the United States, previously noted that Washington once operated a base near Manta until its lease expired in 2009. Lifting the ban would therefore reopen an issue that has sat closed for more than a decade.
Noboa’s political position also matters. The report says he was elected earlier this year to a second term and is the heir to one of the nation’s largest fortunes. That background has helped make him both a symbol of continuity for some voters and a lightning rod for critics who fear that exceptional security policies can slide into overreach.
The referendum approval does not settle any of the underlying disputes. It simply moves them into a more formal political arena, where voters, courts and the electoral council will all have a role. For a country trying to contain violent crime, the stakes are high: Ecuador is now deciding not just how to fight organized crime, but how much constitutional power it is willing to hand the state to do it.
The immediate consequence is that the constitutional battle in Ecuador is no longer only about public security; it is also about the limits of presidential power. Noboa’s push for a referendum, and the court’s effort to review part of it, show how anti-cartel policy is now intertwined with questions of institutional control. That makes the outcome relevant well beyond the specific referendum questions.
