Covering events from January - December 2002

REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR
Head of state and government: Gustavo Noboa Bejarano
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
International Criminal Court: ratified

Human rights defenders were threatened, harassed and intimidated. Although some officials spoke out against persecution of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, LGBT people continued to be arbitrarily detained, tortured and ill-treated. Members of the security forces suspected of committing human rights violations continued to be investigated and tried by police courts which were neither independent nor impartial. Torture and ill-treatment remained widespread.

Background

Throughout 2002, trade unions and grass-roots organizations, including indigenous communities, staged demonstrations against the poverty of the vast majority of the population and the government's economic policies.

The construction of an oil pipeline to deliver oil from the eastern rainforest region to refineries on the Pacific coast alarmed environmentalists and indigenous groups, since the route cut through several protected areas including the Mindo Nambillo Cloud Forest Reserve.

There were serious concerns about the effect of Plan Colombia (see Colombia entry) in Ecuador, in particular in the border areas. In the border province of Sucumbíos, for example, there was a marked increase in crime. The military reacted by transferring troops from the interior to newly constructed outposts all along the northern border. A growing number of Colombians crossed the border to escape the worsening violence in Colombia. According to official statistics, there were 3,774 asylum claims by September. Of the 8,482 asylum applications in Ecuador between January 2000 and September 2002, more than 95 per cent were from Colombian nationals.

One person was injured when three bombs exploded in September in the city of Guayaquil, which the authorities blamed on small armed groups operating in the country.

Elections were held in October and November. Retired Colonel Lucio Gutierrez Borbua, the candidate of the Alianza Sociedad Patriótica-Pachakutic, won and was due to take office in January 2003. AI urged candidates to put the protection and promotion of human rights at the forefront of their political agenda. However, none of the candidates, including the newly elected President, committed themselves to respect and protect human rights during their presidency.

Human rights defenders

Human rights defenders were harassed, intimidated and arbitrarily detained. President Noboa publicly criticized the work of human rights defenders on various occasions.

  • The offices of a national human rights organization, INREDH, were broken into and confidential information was accessed and tampered with by the intruders, who ignored valuable items which were at hand.
  • Eight environmentalists were detained without charge when they demonstrated in front of the headquarters of the US oil company Occidental in Quito in July. All were subsequently released.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people

Although some officials called for an end to discrimination against the LGBT community, in particular to practices that lead to grave human rights abuses, the authorities continued to ignore many of the complaints they received. Torture and ill-treatment, including sexual harassment, continued to be used to humiliate and punish LGBT detainees.
  • In April, two transgender adolescents were allegedly "sold for sex" by guards to other detainees in the Provisional Detention Centre in Guayaquil. In May, state human rights officials and representatives of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Fundación Amigos por la Vida, Friends for Life Foundation, visited the centre and subsequently called for an improvement in conditions and thorough investigations into allegations of human rights violations against LGBT detainees.
Impunity

Members of the security forces who allegedly committed human rights violations continued to be investigated and tried by police courts which were neither impartial nor independent. In the few cases where members of the security forces were detained for alleged human rights violations, proceedings were so slow that the accused was often conditionally released after one year, as required by law. Often, the accused then absconded.

Victims, their relatives and witnesses of human rights violations were frequently intimidated and threatened after the lodging of a complaint, during the pre-trial and trial phase.

Torture and ill-treatment

Torture and ill-treatment of detainees and prisoners remained widespread. These violations occurred during arrest, while being taken to a police station, and in police stations, detention centres and prisons.
  • Nicolás Agustín Tiluaño Cedeño was detained by police in April as he travelled to Guayaquil. He was taken to the police station on suspicion of belonging to an armed gang. The following day he was taken to hospital, where he died two days later. His family reported that he was held incommunicado during his detention and that when they went to see him in hospital his body showed that he had been beaten and he had a broken arm. An investigation was reportedly opened by a police court in Guayaquil.
Conditions of detention in some detention centres amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The poorest detainees were sometimes detained in these conditions for months because they did not have the resources to speed up judicial procedures for their release or transfer to a prison.
  • The Provisional Detention Centre in Guayaquil held more than 350 detainees in a handful of cells, each holding up to three times more than the maximum capacity, when it was visited by officials and NGO delegates in May.

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