An Ecuadorian court found 16 soldiers guilty this Monday. The ruling sentenced 11 soldiers to the maximum sentence requested by the Prosecutor’s Office – 34 years and eight months in prison – as those directly responsible for the crime. A uniformed man, prosecuted as an accomplice, was acquitted. Five other soldiers received 30-month sentences after availing themselves of the effective cooperation figure. Their testimonies allowed, in a context marked by misinformation, the Government’s threats against the first judge who heard the case and a discredit campaign against the victims.
Nehemiah (15 years old), Steven (11), Ishmael (15) and Joshua (14). Those in the city crudely recorded the capture: the teenagers were beaten and dragged to military trucks before being taken to Taura, a remote rural area located more than an hour from the place where they were last seen. The court determined that the patrol failed to comply with due process by failing to hand over the minors to police specializing in adolescent crimes, as required by law, and by wrongly accusing them of robbery. Furthermore, it established that the four young people were subjected to torture and inhuman and cruel treatment.
During the trial, the prosecutor presented evidence that exposed: key testimonies, a chat created by the military to coordinate a common story, audios and a video that documented the torture – beatings, threats and even shots. The Prosecutor’s Office maintained that this material demonstrated the deliberate intention to inflict harm on minors.
The bodies of the victims were found burned on December 24 of last year, 16 days after their arrest. A new trial seeks those responsible for the murders.
Outside the courthouse, relatives and neighbors awaited the resolution with photographs of the four children and posters with the slogan “Neither forgiveness nor forgetting!” Among them, the Afro-Ecuadorian batucada that accompanied all the demonstrations of the case marked the pulse with their drums, while the expectation grew for the judges’ decision.
Repair measures
The sentence imposed a fine of $385,000 and ordered . Among them, the payment of $10,000 for each sentenced soldier to the families of the victims. He also ordered that the State issue a public apology through a national media outlet and that a ceremony of redress be held at the Taura Air Base, in which the responsibility of the State and the military institution is recognized. A plaque with the names of the victims will be placed at the base’s main entrance.
The ruling also establishes that the convicted military personnel must complete a mandatory human rights and intervention program with the civilian population, including children, adolescents and older adults, with a minimum workload of 120 hours per year, as a guarantee of non-repetition. The judges also ordered the restoration of the honor of the victims, falsely accused of being thieves and members of criminal gangs. This is how Fernando Bastias, lawyer for the Human Rights Committee of Guayaquil, explained it to those who were awaiting the resolution: “They were accused of things that were not the case, and now the court has ordered that this damage be repaired.”
The ruling instructs the sentenced military personnel and the Ecuadorian Air Force to issue a national statement – in the media and social networks – under the title “Rectification and truth of the Malvinas case”, in which it is clarified that the victims were never criminals or belonged to any criminal group, and the false statements spread by State institutions and certain sectors of the media are denied, Bastias said.
“Forced disappearances policy”
That was one of the breaking moments for those who have followed the case for a year. The news moved those in attendance; many could not hold back their tears. Added to the outrage over the disappearance and death of the children was the weight of misinformation and stigmatization sustained for months.
Although the sentence clarifies central aspects of the disappearance, the path to complete justice remains open. In relation to the murder of the minors, another judicial process remains that is advancing slowly. “Although the military cannot be considered criminally responsible for the death, their participation in the forced disappearance was decisive in the fatal outcome,” Bastias explained. For the families of Ishmael, Joshua, Steven and Nehemiah, there is still a long journey ahead.
The case has made it possible, according to human rights defenders, to make visible what could constitute a policy of forced disappearances implemented in 2024, within the framework of a wave of attacks, including the takeover of a television channel. “The parents of these children have opened a path that is not only theirs,” Bastias concluded, “but also that of all the families who have suffered forced disappearances on the Ecuadorian coast, so that they also have access to truth, justice and reparation.”
