A court in Ecuador has sentenced 11 soldiers to lengthy prison terms for their role in the abuse and disappearance of four children in Guayaquil, marking the conclusion of a yearlong investigation that has drawn national attention.
The ruling follows the disappearance of the children during a military security operation carried out as part of the government’s intensified response to crime.
Judges sentenced 11 members of the armed forces to 34 years and eight months in prison for the forced disappearance of the minors.
Five additional soldiers who confessed and cooperated with prosecutors received reduced sentences of two years and six months, while one defendant was acquitted.
The court determined that the soldiers abused the children, subjected them to beatings and mock executions, forced them to strip, and abandoned them in a remote and dangerous rural area.
“The abandonment of the minors in a dangerous and desolate place was the cause of the victims’ deaths,” Judge Jovanny Suárez said in the ruling.
The soldiers were acquitted of murder charges, with the trial focusing on the crime of forced disappearance.
Prosecutors are continuing a separate investigation into kidnapping resulting in death to determine who carried out the killings.
The four victims, Steven Medina, Nehemías Arboleda, and brothers Ismael and Josué Arroyo, were between 11 and 15 years old.
They were last seen on December 8, 2024, while returning from a football match near their neighbourhood in southern Guayaquil.
Weeks later, their charred bodies were discovered in a rural swampy area far from the city.
The military initially claimed the boys were criminals who had been detained and released alive, a position later challenged by testimony and video evidence.
The case sparked widespread outrage and renewed criticism of President Daniel Noboa’s security strategy, known as the Phoenix Plan.
Under the policy, the military has been deployed internally to confront gang violence.
Human rights groups have said the approach has coincided with an increase in enforced disappearances and alleged abuses.
Amnesty International reported that dozens of people have been reported missing in incidents involving the armed forces since Noboa took office in 2023.