Civilians faced attacks, abuse in joint US-Ecuador operations, HRW says
Report presents evidence that civilian farmers and fisherman were caught up in anti-drug crime operations from January to March. Civilians in Ecuador faced attacks and
Report presents evidence that civilian farmers and fisherman were caught up in anti-drug crime operations from January to March. Civilians in Ecuador faced attacks and abuses as part of a joint US-Ecuador military campaign meant to target organised crime in the country, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW). The rights group on Tuesday called on the US Congress to assert greater oversight over the administration of US President Donald Trump’s militaristic approach to crime in Latin America, and particularly its “perilous” partnership with Ecuador, which has seen Washington provide “equipment, training, intelligence, and most recently, direct military support”. “US-Ecuador cooperation on security has been too opaque and too dangerous for Ecuadorians,” the organisation’s Americas director, Juanita Goebertus, said in a statement. “Before more harm is done, the US Congress should demand real answers and effective safeguards.” The report focused on joint US-Ecuador attacks on both land and sea and was based on 62 interviews, with researchers analysing more than “100 photographs and videos provided by lawyers and interviewees or published online on social media, along with satellite imagery, vessel monitoring data, fire detection data, medical records, and judicial documents”. In joint US-Ecuador military operations between March 1 and 6, in a border settlement near Colombia, HRW said that Ecuadorian soldiers “arbitrarily detained and tortured” four dairy farm workers as they burned three properties.
They later dropped munitions on two of those locations. One of the detained men said the soldiers “tortured me with electricity, with a taser”. “They poured water on me and then shocked me, and I passed out. I lost consciousness at least twice,” he told HRW investigators. The four detained men were not charged, as soldiers “failed to provide any evidence against them”, the report said. US and Ecuadorian authorities have said the attackers were targeting facilities of an armed group that operates on both sides of the Ecuador-Colombia border, known as the Comandos de la Frontera. But HRW said that, after reviewing “photographs, videos, satellite imagery, property records, and commercial receipts”, it found no evidence that the targeted properties were camps for Comandos de la Frontera, as Ecuador’s government had claimed. It said evidence indicated two of the locations had been abandoned for years, while the third, where the men were detained, was an operating dairy farm. The full extent of US involvement in the specific attacks was known, although the administration of US President Donald Trump has said its forces were “present” in operations in the region, known as San Martin, the report stated. Attacks at sea Rights investigators have also found evidence that the US was involved in attacks on Ecuadorian fishermen operating in the Eastern Pacific.
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