image source, Reuters
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A year ago, authorities in Ecuador confirmed that four bodies found cremated and bearing signs of torture near a military base corresponded to those of four children who went out to play soccer and never returned home.
This Monday, an Ecuadorian criminal court sentenced eleven air force soldiers to more than 34 years in prison as direct perpetrators of the enforced disappearance of minors.
In addition, five other soldiers who used effective cooperation or rewarded denunciations received 30 months in prison.
According to the court, their cooperation was important in clarifying the facts and reconstructing what happened after the minors were detained.
A lieutenant colonel accused of being an accomplice was found innocent.
In his ruling, the chief judge pointed out that the uniformed officers had deliberately concealed information. That is, they entered into a “pact of silence” regarding the arrest of the four minors on the night of December 8, 2024.
The minors, aged between 11 and 15, disappeared in the Las Malvinas neighborhood in southern Guayaquil during a military operation against organized crime ordered by President Daniel Noboa.
image source, Reuters
“A dangerous and desolate place”
Brothers Ismael and Josué Arroyo, aged 15 and 14, and their friends Nehemías Arboleda (15) and Steven Medina (11) were arrested during a night patrol.
According to witnesses, the young people were beaten, forced to strip naked and abandoned near an air force base in Taura, a rural community about 30 kilometers from Guayaquil.
“The death of the minor was a product of the situation of abandonment in a dangerous and desolate place,” the judge said of the deployment of the so-called Tango Charlie patrol.
The minors’ charred remains were found in the area on December 24, 2024. The autopsy revealed that at least three of the victims had gunshot wounds.
“The patrol has failed the minors in this sector,” argued the judge when reading the verdict this Monday.
In addition to the prison sentences, the soldiers were ordered to pay $376,000 in fines and $10,000 in restitution to the minors’ families. The ruling also orders, among other things, the issuing of public apologies at a national media outlet and the holding of a reparation ceremony at the Taura air base.
image source, Courtesy of the family
After hearing the verdict, the military’s defense lawyers can appeal, arguing that the evidence is inconclusive and that the convicts allowed the minors to live.
For its part, after hearing the verdict, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Defense expressed “deep respect for the pain of the victims’ families.”
“Today, when justice has decided, we reaffirm our full respect for the law and the sentence imposed,” the institution said in a statement.
image source, Courtesy of the family
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