A criminal court of Ecuador ordered on tuesday preventive detention for 16 soldiers who are being investigated for the alleged forced disappearance of four teenagerswhich has generated commotion in the country and concern among international organizations, reported the Prosecutor’s Office.
“Based on the elements of conviction presented by #FiscalíaEc, The judge in the case dictates preventive detention for the 16 soldiers prosecuted for alleged #ForcedDisappearance“said the accusing body through its account on the social network X.
The Prosecutor’s Office accused the group of soldiers, who was already in military custodyof the crime of forced disappearance, punishable by up to 26 years in prison, according to the Ecuadorian penal code.
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The port court Guayaquil held a hearing in which the Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against the 16 members of the Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE), who are being investigated for the disappearance after having arrested the teenagers between 11 and 15 years old on December 8 for an alleged robbery.
The military maintains that shortly after arresting them, they released the minors in good condition, who have since disappeared.
Saul Arboleda, Steven Medina and the brothers Joshua and Ishmael Stream They were arrested in the sector of The Falklandsin the south of Guayaquil, one of the main cities hit by drug trafficking violence and where the government keeps the Armed Forces deployed in the streets.
On December 24, after civil justice determined that there was a “forced disappearance” of the teenagers, Four charred bodies were found in a mangrove area near the FAE base in the town of Taura.on the outskirts of Guayaquil, and to which the patrol belongs.
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Authorities have not yet reported whether the bodies found have been identified.
Dozens of family members, neighbors and human rights activists held a sit-in outside the court early in the morning to demand justice for the disappearance of the teenagers who left their homes to play soccer.
The protesters shouted in protest, carrying signs with legends such as “we want them alive now.”
A woman displayed a cardboard cutout of the president Daniel Noboa with bloody handprints on his face, which was burned. “killer noboa“said another poster.
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The commander of the FAE, Celiano Cevallosexpressed on Monday before the parliamentary commission on Children in Quito that “the military personnel would have acted (…) in the face of an alleged flagrant crime“, alluding to an alleged robbery in progress that was detected by the military patrol that provided support to customs agents.
“No operation was arranged (military) in the Las Malvinas sector,” he added.
Organizations of the HIM and the OASas well as international human rights NGOs have expressed their concern about the case.
Some 40 social organizations blamed Noboa for the “serious violations of human rights” registered in 2024, within the framework of his fight against organized crime that led him to declare the country in internal armed conflict at the beginning of the year, mobilizing the military to the streets.