Ecuador warns of potential assassination attempt against President Noboa but provides no evidence

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Ecuadorian authorities warned Saturday that the Andean country is on "high alert" after it received intelligence about an suspected attempt on President Daniel Noboa’ s life.

Ecuador’ s Government Ministry, providing no evidence for its claims, wrote on a post on the social network X that it was warned "about the planning of an assassination, terrorist attacks and … violent protests."

The ministry said it had taken security measures to neutralized the alleged threats.

The warning comes days after Noboa won re-election, defeating leftist opposition candidate Luisa González by a margin of more than one million votes, according to electoral authorities.

Noboa has gained popularity for his crackdown on organized crime at a time that violence has soared, prompting the president to declare that Ecuador is in an "internal armed conflict."

The Noboa government claimed that those behind the recent threat were "criminal structures" and "political sectors defeated at the polls.” Noboa alluded to an alleged military intelligence report circulating on social media which said that after Sunday’s elections, "the transfer of hired killers from Mexico and other countries to Ecuador has begun.”

The Associated Press consulted the military institution on the veracity of the report, to which its press office responded that an official statement would be issued in the coming hours.

But the lack of evidence from Ecuador’s government fueled criticism from former candidate González, who has repeatedly claimed that the election result was falsified. On Saturday, she wrote on X that the assassination claims were simply the government’s "desperation to silence us" and added that "more persecution is coming."