In a context of fragile democratic institutions, Ecuador has seen a surge in violence and organized crime activity, with the murder rate reaching unprecedented levels.
Long-standing structural problems, including restrictions on the enjoyment of social rights, have sparked chronic protests and led to an increase in the numbers of migrants and asylum seekers leaving Ecuador and heading north.
In a runoff election on October 15, Ecuadorians elected Daniel Noboa, a businessman and former lawmaker from the National Democratic Movement, as their next president. The election was marked by violence, including the murder of Fernando Villavicencio, a journalist and former lawmaker who was running for president.
On August 20, Ecuadorians voted in a nationwide referendum to halt current and future oil drilling in the heart of Yasuni National Park in the Amazon rainforest.
Allegations of corruption, lack of enforcement of indigenous peoples’ rights, restrictions on abortion access, and limited protections for children and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people remain serious concerns.
Violence and crime
Ecuador’s homicide rate has soared from 13.7 per 100,000 people in 2021 to 25.9 in 2022. It is expected to rise further to about 45 in 2023, putting Ecuador in the top three most violent countries in Latin America alongside Venezuela and Honduras.
The two major gangs, the Choneros and the Lobos, work with drug traffickers from Colombia, Mexico and Albania who supply drugs to Ecuador. Fighting for territorial control, the gangs have engaged in escalating acts of extreme violence, including beheadings and dismemberment, car bombs and attacks and murders of judges, prosecutors, journalists and political candidates.
Extortion by criminal groups continues to increase: between January and June 2023, the National Police received more than 4,600 reports of extortion, double the number from the same period in 2022.
On July 23, gunmen killed Agustin Intriago, the mayor of the western city of Manta.
On August 9, Construire presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed by an assailant on his way back from a campaign event in the capital, Quito. Villavicencio has a long history of exposing government corruption and the abuse of power by organized crime.
Gang violence on Ecuador’s streets is linked to violence in its prisons, where overcrowding and a lack of state control have led gang members to commit about 14 massacres since 2019, claiming more than 600 lives, according to the non-governmental organization (NGO) Commission for the Defense of Human Rights (CDH). Overcrowding is rooted in punitive drug policies, delays in the payment of prison benefits, and excessive use of pretrial detention. Prison guards are poorly trained and ill-equipped to contain the violence.
In response to the escalating violence, then-President Guillermo Lasso declared local and nationwide states of emergency that suspended constitutional rights. The government sent in the military, raided prisons, and allowed civilians to carry firearms.
Democratic institutions and the rule of law
Democratic institutions remain fragile due to allegations of corruption, interference in senior appointments, and politically motivated dismissals of officials. Reports of trial delays, lack of due process, and inappropriate pressure and disciplinary action against courts and judges continue.
In May, then-President Lasso, facing an impeachment vote over corruption allegations, invoked a provision in Ecuador’s constitution to dissolve the legislative body, the National Assembly, and call for new elections for the president, vice president, and members of parliament. The constitution allows the president to rule by decree until a new president is inaugurated, but only on “urgent economic” issues. The Constitutional Court invalidated several decrees issued by then-President Lasso during this period.
In September, the president of the National Council of Popular Participation, an independent government body, announced an investigation into the 2019 appointments of Constitutional Court judges. Elected through an independent and transparent process, the Court has issued several rulings in support of fundamental human rights. The investigation appears to be politically motivated, and according to Ecuador’s lawyers, the Council did not have the legal authority to conduct an investigation. On October 6, the Constitutional Court removed the Council’s president from his position.
Environmental protection and indigenous rights
After decades of organizing led by a coalition of indigenous people, youth, and activists, Ecuadorians voted in a referendum on August 20 to halt current and future oil drilling in the Ixpingo, Tambococha, and Tiputini (ITT) areas of Yasuni National Park, a United Nations World Biosphere Reserve. The ban would help protect the Amazon and safeguard the rights of the self-isolated Tarromenane, Tagaeri, and Dugacaeri indigenous peoples, but then-President Lasso and the Ministry of Energy and Mines questioned whether the government would abide by the referendum.
Voters also opted to ban all mining in the Choco Andino reserve near Quito.
Indigenous leader Eduardo Mendua was shot and killed outside his home in the Ecuadorian Amazon on February 26. At the time of writing, one suspect is on trial and two others remain at large. Mendua had opposed oil drilling in indigenous communities in the Sucumbíos department.
Immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees
A record 48,000 Ecuadorians crossed the Darien Valley, a dangerous jungle between Colombia and Panama, between January and September 2023, up from about 29,000 in all of 2022. Unemployment, low incomes, general insecurity, gang threats and violence are some of the reasons people are leaving the country.
As of late September 2023, more than 201,000 foreigners, including more than 193,000 Venezuelans, had registered in the regularization process for Venezuelans who entered the country illegally or who had overstayed their visas, which then-President Lasso had initiated in 2022. Ecuadorian authorities issued more than 78,000 Temporary Residence with Exception (VIRTE) visas, including more than 77,000 for Venezuelan nationals. As of September, approximately 477,000 Venezuelan migrants and refugees were residing in Ecuador.
Ecuador is set to admit more than 55,800 refugees between 2007 and 2023, the majority of them Colombians.
Children’s rights
Sexual violence remains a problem in public and private schools: Of the more than 20,000 reports of sexual violence received by the Ministry of Education between January 2014 and July 2023, in about 26 percent the perpetrator was identified as someone within the national education system.
In June 2023, Ecuador’s Ombudsman’s Office, in collaboration with COCASEN, a coalition of civil society organizations working on children’s rights, launched a non-judicial investigation into the systematic sexual abuse of adolescents and other children.
In August, the Ministry of Education launched a National Strategy on Comprehensive Sexuality Education, a step towards preventing sexual violence in schools, following the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling in the Paola Guzmán Albarracín case.
Ecuadorian human rights groups and UN experts have warned that without jobs and education, an increasing number of children are being recruited by criminal gangs, subjected to sexual exploitation and forced into acts of violence.
Women and Girls’ Rights
In Ecuador, abortion is considered a crime unless the pregnancy threatens a person’s health or life or is the result of rape.
In the 2022 Abortion Law, parliament included measures restricting access to abortion procedures, including broad conscientious objection for individuals and groups, the prerequisite of reporting rape to the authorities, and parental or guardian consent for girls. In 2023, the Constitutional Court maintained the suspension of these measures. At the time of writing, the Court’s final decision is pending.
Stigma, abuse, fear of criminal prosecution, and narrow interpretations of health exceptions to abortion bans remain barriers to access.
The Attorney General’s Office reported 77 cases of femicide (considered to be gender-related killings) between January and September, more than in the same period in 2022. Civil society groups reported 238 cases of femicide between January and the end of September.
Rights of people with disabilities
Institutional and societal discrimination continues to limit people with disabilities’ access to employment, education and health care.
Ecuador has adopted specific procedures for responding to emergencies related to persons with disabilities in 2022.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Parliament has yet to comply with Constitutional Court orders to amend civil marriage rules to include same-sex couples, allow self-determination in gender recognition procedures, regulate assisted reproductive technology, and allow same-sex couples to register their children under their own surnames.
The Constitution discriminates against same-sex couples by excluding them from adoption.
Freedom of Expression
Increased violence and political instability have hindered the work of journalists and media.
According to the free speech organization Fundamedios, attacks against media workers have increased: several journalists and media outlets have received death threats and been sent explosives in the mail, forcing five journalists to flee Ecuador between January and September 2023.
Key international actors
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, visited Ecuador in January and noted challenges including socio-economic inequality, poor prison conditions and security issues linked to international crime. He then expressed concern about the increase in violence and the murder of Fernando Villavicencio. Various UN experts echoed Turk’s concerns, highlighting attacks on law enforcement officials and drawing links between poverty, violence and insecurity.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned “serious acts of violence” during the campaign and granted protective measures to Construillet’s presidential candidate, Cristian Zurita, and his team, who became president after Villavicencio’s assassination.
On August 8, the first day of the Amazon Summit, Ecuador signed the Belém Declaration along with seven other Amazonian countries, establishing a joint agenda for protecting the Amazon.
Ecuador will become a member of the UN Security Council in January 2023 and assumed its presidency in December. Ecuador’s resolution strengthening the mandate of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti was adopted unanimously. Ecuador has used its seat on the Security Council to speak out forcefully on issues such as Russian abuses in Ukraine and the importance of cross-border humanitarian access to northwest Syria. Ecuador has helped lead the Security Council’s efforts on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.