Four black children were arbitrarily detained by soldiers in Guayaquil on December 8.

On Monday, the families of four children who disappeared on December 8 in Guayaquil, after being detained by a military patrol, denounced that the Ecuadorian police have attempted to intimidate them to prevent them from continuing their complaints to human rights organizations.

RELATED:

Ecuador: Judge Nubia Vera Reports Threats Following Ruling in Favor of Vice President Verónica Abad

They also indicated that President Daniel Noboa’s government might be trying to interfere with the investigations to determine the whereabouts of their children.

On Monday morning, a police patrol approached one of the children’s homes and took unauthorized photographs, said Billy Navarrete, director of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDH).

“They not only photographed the exterior of the house but also took pictures of the vehicle the family uses to commute to work,” he stated, demanding a “complete withdrawal” of agents or soldiers from the families of the minors and their homes.

“These intimidating actions have no place,” Navarrete claimed while also criticizing statements by Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo, who warned that this case might not involve a forced disappearance implicating soldiers but rather the kidnapping of the minors by criminal groups.

“There is evidence of a deliberate attempt to undermine due process guarantees, as these are improper interferences by the Executive branch in a judicial investigation process,” the human rights defender stressed.

Navarro also denounced that at the beginning of the investigation, the prosecutor handling the case told the victims’ families “to remain silent” about the events, which initially delayed the public disclosure of the minors’ disappearance.

This disappearance case occurred on the night of December 8, after brothers Ismael and Josué Arroyo, aged 15 and 14, and their friends Saul Arboleda (15) and Steven Medina (11) went to play soccer in the Las Malvinas neighborhood in southern Guayaquil. They were detained by soldiers while walking near a shopping center and were taken to the Ecuadorian Air Force base in Taura, about 30 km from Guayaquil.

The victims’ families managed to communicate with one of the boys, who reported being beaten by the soldiers. After alerting the police about this conversation, they lost all contact with their children. Security camera footage, however, showed several soldiers arriving at the location where the minors were, loading them into a pickup truck, mistreating them, and taking them to an unknown location.

Defense Minister Loffredo stated that the teenagers were detained by the military patrol because they were “allegedly” “robbing a woman” but claimed the officers later released them. This official version contradicts the facts and has been rejected by the families, who called it an attempt to justify the case of forced disappearance.

“Anyone who commits a crime in this country must be prosecuted under the respective laws, handed over to the competent authorities, and, since they are minors, their parents should have been directly informed,” said Fernando Bastias, a lawyer for the CDH.

“What happened on December 8 is not an isolated event in Ecuador. The severe human rights violations we are witnessing are the result of a heavy-handed and uncontrolled militarization policy that the government is covering up,” he added.

Bastías noted that the CDH is aware of several similar cases of human rights violations that have occurred during the declaration of “internal armed conflict” made by President Noboa at the beginning of 2024, citing the need to combat gangs linked to drug trafficking.

On Tuesday, the families of the missing children expect the courts to rule on a habeas corpus petition filed by their lawyers to have the case investigated as a forced disappearance.

teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE

EN ESTA NOTA: