The insurgency in Ecuador is an ongoing armed conflict, involving Armed Militant Communist Guerrilla groups against the government of Ecuador, the main one being the Group of Popular Combatants, the armed wing of the Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador,^[3] and the Communist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun (PCE-SR).^[4]

It is related to the Colombian Conflict, and the Peruvian Internal Conflict, with the Communist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun having ties with other militant groups like Shining Path in Peru.^[5]

As of 2006, the PCE-SR have claimed 502 armed actions from 1988 to May 1994.^[5]

Between 1809 and 1812, Ecuador unsuccessfully tried to get independence from Spain in the Quito Revolution, forming the short-lived State of Quito.^[6] Thereafter in 1822, it succeeded to declare independence from Spain in the Ecuadorian War of Independence, with Guayaquil,^[7] and became a sovereign country. In 1822 it also became a part of Gran-Colombia. Ecuador, unlike their neighbouring countries such as Colombia or Peru, has not seen major civil wars or internal strife in recent decades.

During the Cold War decades, wars and insurgencies spread over the world. In Latin America, multiple left-wing parties and groups were founded. In Ecuador one of them was the MLCPE.^[8]

Before the insurgency, the main guerrilla group in Ecuador was the "¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo!", which operated from 1982 to 1991. In 1991 they made a peace accord with the government of Ecuador, being the first guerrilla in Latin America to do it.^[9]

The economic crisis resulted in an inflationary currency crisis which would allow the Communist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun in 1993, to spread violence among other groups and drug traffickers.^[10][11]

The conflict started with the formation of a supporting Shining Path movement^[12] known as the Communist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun (from Spanish 'Partido Comunista de Ecuador - Sol Rojo') it is a maoist guerrilla group, followed by the most influential group: Group of Popular Combatants (GCP). On 1 June 1993, the Communist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun started the conflict and attacked Rural areas to the west of Zumba. The group had close ideological and military ties with Shining Path in Peru.

The guerrilla is responsible for skirmishes against the Ecuadorian Army and the indoctrination of the Abimael Guzmán thought in the province of Chimborazo, which in turn forms the nerve center of the guerrilla movement. The Communist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun has also been registered in the provinces of Cañar, Tungurahua and Cotopaxi.^[13]

The PCE-SR uses sabotage tactics, they attacked banks, Peruvian embassy in Ecuador, courts, transport drivers in multiple operations, and political parties.^[5]

On an unknown date, The PCE-SR claims that the Ecuadorian Army did a campaign in Guayaquil that involved two thousand troops, helicopters, tankettes, and gunboats, the soldiers enter a Guayaquil suburb (38th and K) to dismantle to say of them the "Red Sun subversive fabric". The repressive operation left some dead, several detainees, and captured many military and quartermaster material.^[5]

On 3 March 2012, 10 alleged members of the Group of Popular Combatants were arrested and had on charges of subversion and terrorism. The PCE-SR condemned this as an escalation of repression by the Ecuadorian state. The case itself, which became known as the Luluncoto 10, would become controversial over the process of criminalizing political groups as terrorist organizations.^[14][15] Months later, the PCE-SR ruled on the forced disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, calling it a state crime and accusing President Enrique Peña Nieto of being in charge of a narco-state.^[16] In October 2014, the PCE-SR announced its solidarity with the Popular Protection Units for the defense carried out in the siege of Kobane.^[17]

The Group of Popular Combatants (from Spanish Grupos de Combatientes Populares) was formed in 1994, during the presidency of Sixto Durán Ballén. It became much more active in the 2000s and since then it has participated in a series of attacks against foreign diplomats, as well as several bomb attacks.^[18]

GCP committed an attack on September 28, 1997, in Quito. No one was injured or killed in the attack.^[19]

Another GCP attack occurred on February 16, 2000, in Guayaquil. A television network received a videotape that contained a concealed bomb. The civil Rafael Cuesta, the news editor at the station, and the only casualty in the attack, was wounded when the bomb went off inside the station. Before the attack, the news station had warnings about a possible attack from a different group, This initially led authorities to blame a different organization, although, the Group of Popular Combatants did eventually take responsibility. Rafael Cuesta was the only person injured and no one was killed.^[20]

In 2002 it was reported that the Group of Popular Combatants was attempting to establish a rural base in a remote jungle region bordering Colombia and that they may have been receiving training from some of the guerrilla groups involved in the Colombian conflict.^[21]

The GCP claimed that in its system, the combatants accumulate revolutionary merits, they strive to contribute with initiatives so that the organization develops, advances, expresses itself democratically, and responsibly fulfills the resolutions that are taken in the groups and the leadership teams. Those who accumulate more merits are part of the provincial leadership teams and are democratically elected in an assembly.^[22]

On 22 November 22, 2010, the GCP claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on the head office of the University of Guayaquil. The GCP claimed they used the bomb to attempt to influence student elections held at the university.^[23]

The GCP claimed on 6 December 2010, to have territory in the Azuay Province, and claimed standing in solidarity with the troops of the police, the army, and the air force in the province.^[24]

On 3 March 2012, 10 alleged members of the GCP were arrested and had on charges of subversion and terrorism, The PCE-SR condemned this as an escalation of repression by the Ecuadorian state. The case itself, which became known as the Luluncoto 10, would become controversial over the process of criminalizing political groups as terrorist organizations.^[14][15]

The Alfarist Liberation Army (ELA) (from Spanish 'Ejército de Liberación Alfarista'), was another combatant in the conflict, which information about is very unknown.

This group is said to have resumed the "revolutionary armed struggle" and infiltrated, in Quito, the popular and student demonstrations that led to the fall of the government of Lucio Gutiérrez.^[25]

Intelligence reports from the Ecuadorian government suggest that ELA's contacts with people from Venezuela are not only certain but frequent, and include some meetings that would have taken place in Quito itself, such as those that served to launch a clandestinely printed magazine, entitled Liberación.^[25]

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Ecuador (FARE) (from Spanish 'Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Ecuador'), is another group with very little information.

Allegedly, this group is 400 men strong and has been trained and equipped by the FARC. It is held responsible for a 2003 bomb attack in Guayaquil. The Ministry of Defence believes that the FARE does not pose a security threat, but the Ecuadorian police view it as a problem.^[26]

On 22 July 2002, The Freedom House stated that Colombian right-wing paramilitary groups had "infiltrated northern Ecuador" to "target locals there who they believed might be cooperating with the guerrillas".^[26]

On 22 November 2011, FARE set two separate bombs that exploded nearly simultaneously in downtown Guayaquil, the first of which went off in front of the local Ministry of Health offices, while the second detonated several blocks away.^[27]

The Amazonic Revolutionary Command (from Spanish 'Comando Amazónico Revolucionario') (CAR), is another group in the conflict. On 29 May 2005, CAR exploded a leaflet bomb in the city of Macas. The incident occurred at 11:35 a.m. when members of the Ecuadorian Army stationed in the 21st Condor Brigade in Patuca were participating in the civic parade in honor of the founding celebrations of Macas.^[28]

After FARC broke out in 2016, its dissidents started operating in Ecuador, in border towns with Colombia.

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) claimed that Colombian paramilitary officers in Lago Agrio, Sucumbios province, have been known to have local taxi drivers and citizens "working for them as informants regarding FARC guerrilla movements in the area".^[29]

In March, April, and May 2018, the FARC dissidents attacked border towns with Colombia in Mataje, San Lorenzo and Tobar Donoso. They also attacked Puerto Mestanza in January 2019^{[30][31][32][33]}