Amnesty International Report 1995 - Ecuador

Detainees were reportedly tortured and ill-treated by members of the security forces. Judicial proceedings in one "disappearance" case resulted in the conviction of seven police officers. Numerous human rights cases documented in previous years remained unresolved. In March the authorities announced that the Judicial Police, a new body, had come into operation in the capital, Quito, and in the city of Guayaquil, and that it would be gradually extended to the rest of the country (see Amnesty International Reports 1992 to 1994). However, in July the president of the Supreme Court of Justice was reported to have declared that the Judicial Police was not yet operational and was only enshrined in the Code of Criminal Procedure. By the end of the year there was evidence that the Judicial Police had begun work in Quito. In June President Sixto Durán Ballén promulgated an agrarian law which apparently adversely affected indigenous communal land rights. The law resulted in widespread protests by indigenous people, including the occupation of public buildings and the blocking of the Pan-American Highway. During the early days of the protest several people were reported to have been killed in clashes between indigenous people and merchants or paramilitary groups organized by landlords. The President subsequently declared a state of emergency and the army was mobilized to quell the protests. In September President Durán Ballén issued a decree making the armed forces responsible for planning and conducting anti-crime operations together with the National Police. Torture and ill-treatment by members of the security forces continued to be reported. Thirty people, all but one of them Colombian nationals, were reportedly tortured and threatened with death, following their detention by the army in late December 1993. The victims had been detained in connection with an ambush of an Ecuadorian border patrol by Colombian guerrillas, on the river Putumayo, in which 11 police and soldiers were killed. Nineteen detainees were released within 48 hours, and 11 were reportedly held incommunicado by the military for between six and 10 days. The 11 were reportedly blindfolded, kicked, suspended, sprayed with gas, doused with a strong disinfectant, given electric shocks and subjected to mock executions. Carmen Bolaños Mora, the only female detainee, was reportedly raped until she lost consciousness. All 11, prior to their transfer into police custody, were reported to have admitted under torture to having participated in the ambush. At the end of August four of the 11 detainees were released by a judge who ruled there was no case against them. Human rights lawyers representing the seven remaining detainees protested their innocence. On 12 April Oscar Soto and Colombian refugee John Kennedy García Petevi were detained by the police in Quito and accused of criminal offences. According to reports, Oscar Soto was severely beaten during interrogation. Human rights defenders who visited him on 24 April in the Provisional Detention Centre to which he was transferred reported that his torso was extensively bruised. An X-ray taken in mid-May showed he had a fractured rib. John Kennedy García was reportedly forced to sign a self-incriminating statement and to accuse an independent human rights defender, as well as a representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Ecuador, of aiding and abetting Colombian refugees in carrying out crimes. On 22 June, during military operations designed to quell the protests against the new agrarian law, numerous indigenous people were reported to have been beaten by members of the army after taking refuge in a convent in Guamote, province of Chimborazo. They were reportedly forced into the convent yard by soldiers, beaten and then taken out to the edge of a gully. Some of them were seriously injured when, in circumstances which were unclear, they flung themselves into the gully. A police investigation into the 1993 death of Luis Olmedo Aguilera López, who died days after he was allegedly beaten by the police (see Amnesty International Report 1994), concluded that he had died of natural causes. However, no independent investigation appeared to have been initiated into the allegations. In November the Supreme Court of Justice sentenced seven national police force officials – including two generals and a retired director of the National Police – to prison terms ranging between two and 16 years for the abduction, torture and murder of the brothers Carlos and Pedro Restrepo, who "disappeared" in 1988 (see Amnesty International Reports 1992 to 1994). Lawyers representing the seven announced appeals against the convictions and sentences. The Supreme Court of Justice ordered three other officials to be tried for having hindered investigations into the case. The authorities failed to clarify numerous cases of human rights violations documented in past years. In February the state prosecutor named several army, navy and police officers as responsible for the arbitrary detention and torture of Serapio Ordoñez and Consuelo Benavides, and for the killing of the latter, in 1985. Two defence ministers under the government of former president León Febres Cordero were accused of being implicated in the cover-up of the case. Pre-trial proceedings had not reached a conclusion by the end of the year (see previous Amnesty International Reports). No progress appeared to have been made in investigations into the cases of eight people who were killed by the security forces in 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1994). Amnesty International urged the government to set up an impartial and thorough judicial investigation into the alleged torture of the 30 people detained along the river Putumayo, and of Oscar Soto and John Kennedy García Petevi. The authorities responded only to the first case, saying that only 11 "subversives" had been detained and that "at no time had they been put under pressure, tortured or had their human rights violated." In June the organization appealed to the authorities to ensure that the security forces seeking to quell indigenous protests against the agrarian law fully respect international human rights standards and that allegations of human rights violations be promptly investigated. The authorities informed Amnesty International that talks with indigenous and other organizations had brought the protest to a peaceful end, but made no reference to allegations that numerous indigenous protesters were beaten in Guamote.