Rally outside prosecutors office in Guayaquil demanding the immediate return of the four disappeared children. Photo: CDH Guayaquil.
Four children in Guayaquil, Ecuador, disappeared after they were arrested by state forces on December 8. The news of their parents desperately searching for their underage children has dominated the news in Ecuador for the last several weeks even amid the festive season. On December 8, Ismael and Josué Arroyo (15 and 14 years old), Saúl Arboleda (15 years old), and Steven Medina (11 years old) were detained by a military contingent patrolling the area where the boys were playing football. The four young Afro-Ecuadorian boys have not been seen since then.
What is known about the disappearance of the children?
According to the relatives of the victims, the children went to play a football game in the neighborhood of Las Malvinas, south of Guayaquil. At some point after the game, soldiers came and arrested the four of them. A now widely circulated video clearly shows how the military captured and beat the child detainees and then took them away in a white van. While Ecuador also has a police force to carry out arrests and general internal public safety tasks, in the last Popular Consultation carried out in the country, people voted to grant the army special powers to carry out internal security controls. The military’s powers have vastly increased since President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency in the country in January 2024.
One of the children’s parents, Luis Arroyo, reported that shortly after their detention, he received a call from his son asking for help and to be rescued. That call was the last time he heard his son’s voice. A key witness, who reportedly lent his cell phone to the boy to call his father, reported that the child had been beaten by the military and was naked.
After several days without answers, it was reported that four charred corpses were found in Taura, near a military base. The parents have already been summoned to the city morgue to confirm if they are their children. However, the state of decomposition and calcination of the bodies is so advanced that it was not possible to determine with the naked eye if the remains were those of the four missing children. Currently, forensic analyses are being carried out to aid in this process. Several experts have stated that the crime could be defined as an “extrajudicial execution” if the corpses are found to be those of the children.
Government reactions
Since the news of the children’s disappearance broke, the public statements issued by different government officials have often contradicted each other.
Secretary of Defense Gian Carlo Loffredo initially said that there was a report stating that the minors were engaged in criminal activities in the area, namely a robbery, and that although the military apprehended them, they were subsequently released. These statements caused a great deal of unease in public opinion, as it seemed that the secretary of defense was seeking to justify the apprehension and disappearance of the minors, while at the same time safeguarding the 16 military personnel involved.
Despite this, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Christian Fárez, said, “There is no evidence, police reports, or testimonies to support the version of an alleged robbery. There is no illicit act committed by the children.”
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa also issued seemingly misguided opinions. In an interview, he stated that he had personally requested that the four missing children be declared “national heroes” before even clarifying the whereabouts of the boys. Noboa also refused to acknowledge that it was a state crime and stated that the case was being “politicized” by the opposition. The president was also harshly questioned for these words, which revealed little empathy. The President of Parliament Viviana Veloz said, “The families of Las Malvinas [neighborhood] do not want child heroes, they want their children to come home alive.”
Now it seems that members of the executive have reevaluated their position and affirmed that all those involved in the case will be judged and punished without mercy. While this is a welcome position, many people have affirmed that the procrastination by various government officials could negatively impact findings in the case and impede a swift resolution.
The families of the victims have also complained that the National Police has intimidated them and that the Executive has interfered in the investigations carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office.
National justice and the UN demand clarification of the case and reparations for the victims
The Attorney General’s Office reported on December 24 that “through its Specialized Unit for the Investigation of the Illegitimate Use of Force, a date and time is requested to bring charges against 16 military personnel for their alleged participation in the forced disappearance of four minors in Guayaquil.” The day prior, the Prosecutor’s Office carried out a raid of the Taura military base to search for evidence.
Meanwhile, Judge Tanya Loor Zambrano accepted a habeas corpus petition filed by the families of the missing children and declared that the disappearance of the children constitutes a crime of “forced disappearance.” She has also ordered the state to act with all the means at its disposal to find the children, as well as comprehensive care for the families of the disappeared, among other urgent measures.
The UN has also joined the demands of the Ecuadorian Justice to implement urgent measures. In addition, it ordered the application of precautionary measures for the case in question. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jan Jarab, said he was extremely concerned after hearing the testimonies of the parents: “The authorities must carry out a rapid search, with the main purpose of finding the whereabouts of the missing children; that is the most urgent objective.”
Widespread indignation
The general feeling of the population is one of deep indignation. On Monday, December 23, sit-ins were held in Guayaquil and Quito to demand the immediate return of the children. Dozens of demonstrators expressed their anger and accused the state of being to blame for the disappearance of the children because they were mainly poor and Afro-Ecuadorian. In Quito, a demonstrator was arrested.
Qué es la Navidad sin los niños? Nos faltan los cuatro.
Loffredo acusa claramente a los infantes que haber sido apresados asaltando a una mujer, y por eso se los llevaron los militares, mientras tanto Noboa, solo reacciona 14 dĂas despuĂ©s, para en un acto reparatorio declararlos… pic.twitter.com/d7xMlFQN68
— El Gallo de la Catedral (@Huaira_Runa) December 25, 2024
Many universities in the country have issued communiqués strongly condemning the actions of the National Army and calling on the authorities to quickly clarify the facts. For example, the University of Cuenca said in a communiqué, “If the state neglects its obligations and also participates in structural violence and discrimination against the most vulnerable population, the whole society is at risk and must speak out for its rights.”
Several human rights organizations have also declared their rejection of the forced disappearance of the four minors. The Regional Human Rights Advisory Foundation (INREDH) wrote in its X account, “It is time that we all [ask] Daniel Noboa, Monica Palencia, and the secretary of defense to answer for the disappearance of four minors taken by the military… in an irregular procedure. The four from Guayaquil, where are they?”
The case has allowed other investigations into forced disappearances to come to light. According to the Association of Relatives and Friends of Disappeared Persons in Ecuador (Asfadec), for now, there are five other young people and adolescents who have been reported as missing to the authorities. According to this association, “The disappearance of persons [by the state] is considered a crime against humanity, that is to say, a very serious crime, and forced disappearance is often used as a strategy to instill terror in the citizenry.”
According to analysts, the case of the four missing children has once again revealed the apparent racist and classist character of the state, which captures Black and poor children and mistreats them with impunity.
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On December 24, amid the social convulsion, Ecuadorian activist Pedro Restrepo passed away. Restrepo is remembered in Ecuador as a tireless fighter who fought for justice for his children. During the presidency of Leon Febres-Cordero (1984-1988), the forces of law and order arrested his two sons, Carlos Santiago and Pedro Andres, and then tortured and disappeared them. They were 14 and 17 years old. To this day, the remains of the minors have not been found. The case caused a great commotion among Ecuadorians who were horrified by the actions of the national police. The Restrepo Case continues to cause national indignation. Pedro and his wife Luz Helena Arismendi did not stop searching for their children until the last day of their lives.
For now, the whole country is waiting for the resolution of the case and the punishment of those responsible, although a series of doubts are beginning to emerge, such as whether the participation of the armed forces in the control of internal security has the desired effects, or whether, on the contrary, it is causing greater uncertainty among the poorest population of the country, who do not see a transformation in the structural causes of poverty or violence and who now have to endure the actions of certain elements of the state that repress them because of the way they look.
(People’s Dispatch) by Pablo Meriguet
