“UNICEF expresses its deep regret and solidarity with the families of the four children killed after being detained by the military on December 8 in Guayaquil,” the international organization said in a note published on the X platform.
The entity added that this irreparable loss leaves a wound that runs through the entire country and that will only heal to the extent that there is justice, full reparation and the guarantee that this does not happen again.
On Sunday, December 8, 2024, the four boys went out to play soccer and then a group of 16 soldiers stopped them and took them away in a van.
Later that same night, they were seen by a witness in the parish of Taura, in the Naranjal canton, Guayas province, 40 kilometers from Guayaquil.
The bodies were found on December 24 and, on December 31, when the country was preparing to celebrate the new year, the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed their identities.
For this case, which was first declared a forced disappearance and activists believe could now be classified as an extrajudicial execution, 16 Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE) soldiers received a preventive detention order and are already in the Latacunga prison.
The event has put the actions of the State institutions under scrutiny, in particular the Armed Forces and their powers in the context of the internal armed conflict.
Despite this, the Minister of Government, José de la Gasca, highlighted his support for the “leaders” of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces in the midst of the armed conflict declared in January of last year.
“There is a campaign promoted by the mafia agendas, which seeks to discredit the entire institutionality. They seek to create a smokescreen to further provoke the armed conflict and we will not allow that,” he said.
This Wednesday the funeral and mass burial of the four boys took place in Guayaquil, where hundreds of people demanded justice.
The Alliance of Organizations for Human Rights issued a statement in which it held the Government of Daniel Noboa and the Armed Forces responsible for what happened.
It pointed out that it is not an isolated incident, but rather it is part of a practice of abuse of authority and force, discrimination, stigmatization and racial profiling, denounced (…) since the beginning of the declaration of armed conflict and states of exception ordered by Noboa.
ef/lam/avr
