Ecuador: 23 Disapperances, Search Efforts Stalled
Violence in Ecuador has risen sharply in recent years in the wake of a spike in confrontations between organized criminal groups disputing territorial control, and between these and security forces. The coastal region of the county has been particularly affected. In response to these challenges, Ecuador’s authorities have relied more heavily on the armed forces while neglecting to ensure sufficient civilian oversight.
Amnesty International is concerned about allegations of possible human rights violations and crimes under international law in connection with the declarations of a state of emergency (Decree 110 of 8 January 2024) and internal armed conflict (Decree 111 of 9 January 2024) in response to increased violence in Ecuador. These initial decrees have been extended in a number of provinces in the coastal region of the country. The measures, which are part of Noboa’s security policy known as “Plan Fenix,” have effectively allowed for the widespread and continued deployment of the military in the streets for public security tasks, for over a year.
In this context, civil society organizations have denounced a rise in human rights violations and crimes under international law, including potential cases of torture, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances, allegedly committed by members of the Armed Forces.
On 8 December 2024, four children went missing after a military operation in Guayaquil, in the Guayas province. They were found death with signs of torture on 24 December 2024; and the Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against 16 members of the Armed Forces for the crime of enforced disappearance on 31 December 2024. The case received widespread media attention and was condemned by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNICEF.
Following these events, the families of other 23 missing individuals approached CDH Guayaquil, the organization that represents the case of the 4 children, to request accompaniment, according to the organization. In total, the NGO now represents 27 cases of disappearances. In a report documenting the cases, CDH Guayaquil identified a pattern of disappearances committed during military operations and noted that the Public Prosecutor’s Office had failed to adequately investigate these events as potential enforced disappearances, by classifying them as “involuntary disappearances.” This, in spite of obligations enshrined in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) to which Ecuador is a state party. In the same report, the organization denounced that state-led search efforts for the missing have not been carried out. The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances has issued urgent actions for several of these cases, calling for search efforts and protection measures for the families of the victims.
According to Articles 12 and 24 (2) of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), the obligation to search for and locate forcibly disappeared persons arises from the convention’s recognition of the right to know the truth. The UN Guiding principles for the search for disappeared persons further establish that the search is a continuous obligation that should start without delay, be governed by public protocols, be conducted under the presumption of life, and coordinated among the different relevant state institutions.