One journalist—who asked CPJ not to disclose his name for safety reasons—left Ecuador in August, having worked as a freelancer in the Ecuadorian Amazon covering environmental conflicts.
An unidentified man assaulted the journalist when he was arriving home, hitting, insulting, and pointing a gun at him. “He told me not to be snooping and asked for my laptop. Luckily, I had left it at my wife’s business. He then tried to get my wallet and cell phone, but we fought, and I managed to escape,” he told CPJ, adding that neither the police nor the public prosecutor’s office would allow him to file a complaint because he could not name his assailant.
Since the government would not investigate or provide security, the journalist said he and his family felt forced to leave the country. “When I suffered a second attack by another unidentified man while I was at my wife’s business, I realized it was about time to flee Ecuador,” he added.
Another Ecuadorian journalist—who asked to remain anonymous, citing fear of reprisals—felt compelled to leave his hometown in October due to death threats from a criminal organization. He reported on crime for the media outlet he owns until one criminal group accused him of favoring a rival group. “I got death threats through messaging and so did my ex-wife. They said that they were watching her and that they knew we had a son,” the journalist told CPJ, adding that he filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office.
Two other journalists, whose names CPJ will not disclose due to safety concerns, who co-founded and worked at a radio station in the Ecuadorian Amazon, were forced to leave the area in October. An unidentified person told them that their names were on a list of people to be silenced by organized criminal groups and advised them to quit covering politics and criminal activities. The Commission for the Protection of Journalists (MAPP by its Spanish acronym) managed to relocate them.
Other journalists who were threatened or fled their homes so far in 2023 include:
The security crisis in Ecuador worsened ahead of the August 20 elections with the killing of former journalist and presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio on August 9. Six Colombians accused of his murder were arrested and then killed in prison on October 6, and police shot dead a seventh Colombian suspect.
In August, the government approved a regulation to implement the Communication Law, which was amended in November 2022 to establish a Communication Council responsible for creating a national mechanism to protect journalists. But the mechanism has yet to be set up or allocated a budget.
The Communication Council has five representatives—four from the government and one from civil society. Civil society representative, César Ricaurte, told CPJ that the new mechanism was urgently needed due to the deteriorating security situation, which was impacting journalists’ work.
“It is important to secure the resources promised by the state,” said Ricaurte, who is also executive director of press freedom group Fundamedios and a MAPP member.
Jeannine Cruz, president of the Communication Council, told CPJ that a separate council subcommittee was responsible for reviewing cases of violence against journalists, including those exiled and displaced, and for filing complaints on their behalf.
“Most of them are terrified to file complaints on their own since they don’t trust the police or the prosecutor’s office,” she said, adding that the national mechanism would be set up in November.
]]>On Tuesday, July 25, Boscán, co-founder of La Posta, and Velásquez, his wife and a journalist with the social media-based outlet, left the country shortly after publishing a report on corruption and drug trafficking allegations involving the brother-in-law of President Guillermo Lasso and members of the Albanian mafia, according to news reports.
In a statement to CPJ, Boscán said that officials with a European intelligence agency contacted La Posta about “a plan of attack” against the outlet’s founders orchestrated by the Albanian mafia. The statement said La Posta’s reporters had also obtained audio files that featured a local Ecuadorian businessman speaking to a member of the Albanian mafia about targeting Boscán in an unspecified attack.
“Ecuadorian authorities must thoroughly investigate the threats against journalists Andersson Boscán and Mónica Velásquez, and ensure they can return to the country safely,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator. “It is outrageous that journalists are fleeing Ecuador amid such widespread threats in response to their work.”
In his statement, Boscán said that Ecuadorian police were aware of the threats made in that recording, but said “they didn’t alert us to the risk we were running.”
“La Posta will continue to do its job, confident that this country deserves the truth and free journalism,” the statement said.
CPJ contacted Ecuadorian Communications Secretary Wendy Reyes for comment via messaging app but did not immediately receive any reply. The outlet’s report said that the president’s brother-in-law did not comment on La Posta’s investigation.
Earlier this year, Ecuadorian journalist Karol Noroña left the country after receiving death threats, and in March, five bombs were mailed to journalists throughout the country, injuring one.
In June, CPJ published Ecuador on edge, a report examining how political turmoil and a deepening security crisis have put reporters and press freedom at increasing risk.
]]>Published June 28, 2023
Two journalists forced to flee due to death threats in a single month; explosive devices mailed to multiple broadcasters; reporters compelled to be accompanied by law enforcement in order to cover violent areas; and entire communities turned into so-called “silent zones,” where the press is intimidated from working. Developments like these portend a grim outlook for press freedom in Ecuador, a country facing a spike in violence against journalists amid a security crisis with no precedent in recent history. The situation is compounded by political turbulence as President Guillermo Lasso, a conservative former banker who took office in 2021, dissolved the National Assembly in May as it moved to impeach him over corruption allegations, which he denied.
Ecuadorian journalists and activists worry that a “perfect storm” is gathering to imperil press freedom in this South American nation. In a recent report, Ecuadorian press freedom group Fundamedios documented 356 attacks on the press in 2022, the highest number since 2018, in an increasingly hostile environment. In the first four months of 2023, the organization reported a total of 96 attacks.
While Lasso took steps to protect the media, additional factors have exacerbated an already volatile situation. The legacy of former President Rafael Correa, who ruled from 2007 to 2017, has caused lasting damage to journalism in Ecuador. The lingering effects of Correa’s anti-press actions, which included filing defamation lawsuits, enacting restrictive measures, and smearing critics, have weakened the media’s ability to report the news, local journalists told CPJ during a recent visit to the capital of Quito. “We are stigmatized, and can’t identify ourselves without being reviled,” said Cristóbal Peñafiel, president of the National Journalists Union. “The press is still a target. Confrontation has been normalized and we are the enemies,” said Francisco Rocha, director of the Ecuadorian Association of Newspaper Publishers (AEDEP).
Correa’s smear campaigns and troll warfare — the former president is still lashing out at his critics on Twitter, according to a recent report by Fundamedios — have had a pile-on effect on private media already financially weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic. A report from the journalist group Fundación Periodistas sin Cadenas (Journalists Without Chains Foundation) showed that from March 2020 to November 2021, the Ministry of Labor listed a total of 22,948 layoffs by companies in the media and communications sector.
Various Ecuadorian newspapers have been forced to close their print editions and several suspended payment to their employees as financial troubles multiplied, Fundamedios reported. The leading Guayaquil-based daily El Universo was among those struggling to survive, laying off 150 employees since the start of the pandemic. “COVID-19 accelerated our digital transformation,” said owner Carlos Pérez Barriga. “The collapse of the business model based on advertising forced us to adapt to this hasty process of change. Today, without a doubt, we have less capacity to cover what’s going on in the city streets.”
According to news site Primicias, criminal violence in Ecuador resulted in the deaths of some 4,603 people in 2022 — an increase of 82.5% over the year prior. The country is a “rising hotspot for organized crime,” said think tank and media organization InSight Crime, citing the country’s “diverse transnational criminal landscape, dominated mainly by Colombian criminal and guerrilla groups as well as Mexican cartels.” Albanian traffickers have also set up a foothold in the country, moving tons of cocaine to Europe.
Various local gangs — including the Choneros and affiliated group the Chone Killers, as well as the Lobos, Tiguerones, and Lagartos — have capitalized on rising crime and violence to expand control over activities including the drug trade and illegal mining. Amid an increasing global demand for drugs, gangs have bolstered dealings with major international criminal networks by working as distributors moving cocaine from neighboring countries through Ecuador’s ports toward Europe and the United States, InSight Crime said.
According to El Universo, Ecuadorian authorities confiscated over 200 tons of drugs in 2022, 90% of which was cocaine. While the amount is a slight decrease from the previous year’s record of 210 tons, it is well above the 128 tons seized in 2020 and the 82 tons seized in 2019, according to InSight Crime.
Arturo Torres, founder and editor of the investigative website Código Vidrio, has covered the evolution of organized crime in the country for more than two decades. “Years of flawed decisions, the lack of understanding about the magnitude of the problem, authorities’ inaction, collusion between criminals and officials, the fact that Ecuador is located between two cocaine-producing countries [Peru and Colombia], and the huge increase in the demand of drugs after the pandemic are all factors that contributed to worsening the problem,” Torres told CPJ in a phone interview.
Torres, who also writes for Primicias, said that journalists have had to take increasing safety precautions when reporting on organized crime. In April, he published a bylined report about an alleged criminal gang leader. The next day a lawyer representing the person named in the article called Torres and urged him to remove the story from the website. Torres refused to do so and alerted the police and other contacts about the call. He did not hear anything further but decided that he would no longer use his byline when publishing information that could put him at risk.
Other journalists on the beat have been less fortunate. In August 2022, Gerardo Delgado Olmedo, who covered crime on a Facebook-based news outlet he founded called Ola Manta TV, was shot to death by two gunmen while he was in his car waiting at a traffic light on the outskirts of the Pacific Coast city of Manta. In April, the killers were sentenced to 34 years and six months in prison while prosecutors continue to investigate to find the mastermind and the motive, according to news reports. Also last year, reporters Mike Cabrera and César Vivanco were killed, and Fernando León disappeared, according to Fundamedios. No one has been arrested for Cabrera and Vivanco’s deaths. (CPJ has been unable to confirm whether the three killings were connected to the journalists’ work, but the deaths inevitably have had a chilling effect on their colleagues.)
Prison violence is another risky beat. Most murders in Ecuador are the result of internal strife among criminal groups competing to control the distribution and export of cocaine, the International Crisis Group said. Often, these rivalries play out behind bars; since 2021, violent clashes have left hundreds of inmates dead, according to news reports.
In March, Karol Noroña, a reporter for the independent Quito-based news website GK, reported on the attempted murder of the warden of the women’s prison in Guayaquil and conducted interviews with inmates on the high rate of homicides inside prisons. On May 24, she met with a source who told her that a drug trafficking gang leader had threatened to kill her over her work. Within 24 hours, Noroña fled Ecuador. “The plan is for her to stay outside the country until her safe return is guaranteed,” Isabela Ponce, GK’s editorial director, told CPJ at the time.
A few weeks later, another journalist, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, fled the country following repeated death threats, according to a statement by Fundación Periodistas sin Cadenas. The threats were brought to the attention of the attorney general’s office, the Interior Ministry, and Lasso’s office several months earlier, the group said. The attorney general’s office told CPJ it has opened investigations into the threats, but they have yielded no results.
The soaring crime rates have had a direct impact on the news business. With journalists self-censoring in fear of physical retribution, entire communities across Ecuador are increasingly left without information on the main issues affecting their daily lives, local journalists and advocates told CPJ.
An investigative report published in May by Fundación Periodistas sin Cadenas claims that the country is facing one of the worst periods in history for press freedom. The foundation describes a situation where “silencing and self-censorship have increased due to escalating widespread violence.” Investigative journalism “is becoming a constant struggle.”
The report examines press conditions in 10 Ecuadorian provinces: Carchi, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, Esmeraldas, Guayas, Loja, Los Ríos, Manabí, Pichincha, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas. The organization found that organized crime and local political forces have imperiled the media in vast parts of Ecuador, taking advantage of its vulnerability, precarious labor conditions, and lack of security.
Women journalists in particular face a disturbing level of violence. “They are victims of various forms of harassment and violence from their sources, managers, or even from civil society itself in the context of social protests,” according to the foundation.
The situation in the northern coastal province of Esmeraldas, on the border with Colombia, is the most obvious example of how attacks against the press can foster a culture of censorship. The 2018 murders of reporter Javier Ortega, photojournalist Paúl Rivas, and driver Efraín Segarra, who worked for El Comercio, after being kidnapped by a dissident group that used to be part of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), sent shockwaves across the Ecuadorian media. In 2021, a Colombian court sentenced two men to nearly 29 years in prison each for their involvement in the killings. The victims’ families have continued to call authorities to identify and punish the mastermind and planners.
“It is a turning point that marked the beginning of this rising wave of attacks against the press,” said Torres. Since then, murder attempts, threats, and intimidation have cowed the media into silence in a region where organized crime groups exert control. “Turning a blind eye” and deciding not to report on criminal activities has been the only option for local journalists to survive in Esmeraldas, an investigation by Fundación Periodistas sin Cadenas showed.
In the current context, sensitive topics related to criminal activities, including drug trafficking and illegal mining — which has now reached isolated spots of the Amazon — go unreported. And those who dare to break the silence face consequences.
Francisco Rodríguez, a Chilean national who lived in Ecuador for more than two decades, is a tour operator, environmental activist, and citizen journalist who commented on environmental damage and government inaction in the gold-rich Napo province on Twitter and in the media. In late January, he survived a shooting attack, and in March he received a series of death threats, he told CPJ from a safe refuge. Rodríguez fled the country in April following advice from local authorities. He said he filed a complaint with the state attorney’s office, but the investigation did not produce any results. Rodríguez said he can no longer live in Ecuador and has returned to Chile.
Large urban areas have also seen recent attacks against the press. In mid-March, letter bombs with USB drives and threatening messages were sent from the central town of Quinsaloma to the TV stations Ecuavisa, Teleamazonas, and TC Television; the radio station EXA FM; and to one independent news commentator, all based in Quito or Guayaquil. One journalist sustained slight injuries after one of the devices exploded.
The Ecuadorian government understands the scale of the problem, and has declared numerous states of emergency since 2021, according to Americas Quarterly. In April, the government took the controversial step of authorizing civilian gun use for personal defense. That month the country also declared organized crime groups as “terrorists,” a designation that grants the military powers to combat gangs without declaring a state of emergency.
In spite of these steps, the government’s response appears to be hampered by political gridlock. Lasso’s decision to trigger a constitutional “muerte cruzada” (crossed death) clause dissolving the National Assembly allows him to rule by decree for up to six months. On August 20, Ecuador is set to hold elections, and, if a runoff is necessary, a new president and National Assembly members will be sworn in at the end of November. Those authorities will serve until May 2025, when Lasso’s term was set to conclude, The Associated Press reported. While Lasso can run in the election, he told The Washington Post that he will support another candidate.
In an interview with CNN en Español, Lasso said his decision to dissolve the National Assembly was aimed at deterring “a macabre plan to take control of state institutions in order to promote impunity and facilitate the return of a former president [Correa] who has been convicted of corruption by the National Court of Justice.”
Correa, who was sentenced to eight years prison in absentia for corruption in 2020, has lived in exile in Belgium, which granted him political asylum, since 2017. (In 2022, Belgium, his wife’s home country, rejected an extradition request.) The former president is still popular in Ecuador, and his Citizen Revolution party was the biggest in the National Assembly before parliament was dissolved, according to Reuters.
While Correa is ineligible to run for president due to his conviction, political analysts and journalists told CPJ that if a Correa ally comes to power, that individual could pave the way for the ex-president’s eventual political return with a pardon. In the meantime, Correa has been encouraged by his party’s big electoral win in the February municipal elections. He told Reuters the party will “rebuild” Ecuador if it succeeds in the upcoming snap elections.
With Ecuador’s future leadership an open question, people in the country are increasingly distrustful of authorities’ ability to cope with crime and violence. A recent Gallup poll showed that the population’s confidence in local law enforcement and their belief in the judiciary are at the lowest level the country has seen in more than 10 years. In 2022, 41% of Ecuadorians expressed confidence in their police force, and even fewer (24%) were confident in the judiciary.
Shortly after taking office in 2021, Lasso proposed a new law to replace Correa’s most anti-press legislation, the Organic Law of Communication. Known as the “gag law,” it had institutionalized repressive mechanisms, established state regulation of editorial content, and given authorities the power to impose arbitrary sanctions and censor the press. Lasso’s immediate predecessor, Lenín Moreno, had already scrapped some of the worst provisions. After Correa’s allies in the National Assembly inserted restrictions, Lasso vetoed that version of the bill. In November, he finally signed a new version, which limits state interference with media, guarantees freedom of speech on social networks, and outlines protections for reporters at risk.
Local journalists told CPJ that they feel their ability to criticize those in power without being persecuted has changed drastically since Correa left office. They said that they feel that the Lasso government generally respects their work, despite the government’s incensed reaction towards La Posta, a news outlet that posts its journalism only on social media platforms. In early January, La Posta reported on an alleged influence peddling scheme within state-owned companies involving Lasso’s brother-in-law, which led the National Assembly to conduct an inquiry. In a televised address, Lasso lambasted the reporters working for the outlet, calling them “media terrorists.” La Posta said that its reporters were harassed and intimidated. In a statement, Fundamedios condemned the government’s reaction, stating that it “recalls a dark time for freedom of expression.”
In late April, CPJ traveled to Quito to meet with Lasso to discuss the deteriorating press freedom conditions and the impact of the public safety crisis on journalists throughout the country. Lasso was not able to attend the meeting due to illness, but a CPJ delegation met with Sebastián Corral, the government’s secretary of the administration. He agreed that the security crisis impacts the media, calling it the government’s top priority, but argued that it affects all Ecuadorians.
During the meeting, Corral agreed to a series of executive measures to support the work of the press. He said that the government will provide critical funds to an existing mechanism to protect journalists, as well as additional funding to support the attorney general in efforts to protect the press and new initiatives to combat misinformation. Corral also pledged to work with local organizations in speeding up the process to implement the new communications law. CPJ hailed these commitments as a positive step toward improving journalist safety.
CPJ also met with Attorney General Diana Salazar Méndez. Ecuadorian journalists and press freedom advocates have criticized her for what they describe as a lack of timely and rigorous investigations into the numerous attacks against members of the media.
During the meeting at her office overlooking downtown Quito, Salazar described a security crisis “without precedent” and said her office strongly supports the work of the press. Salazar conceded that systems to protect victims and witnesses have limitations and need an infusion of “extraordinary resources” to operate more effectively. When pressed about the lack of successful prosecutions in cases of threats and attacks against the press, she said journalists want immediate answers, but judicial investigations take time. She also said some journalists had not cooperated with investigations into threats against them.
Despite the gravity of the crisis, there is a lack of international attention on Ecuador. While the Biden administration has insisted that Lasso is one of United States’ staunchest allies, in April several members of the U.S. Congress sent Biden a letter calling on him to “re-evaluate” close relations with the Ecuadorian government and to take a closer look at the corruption allegations surrounding Lasso’s presidency.
“The situation in Ecuador deserves to be debated at the regional level,” said Diego Cazar Baquero, founding member of Fundación Periodistas sin Cadenas and editor of the online publication La Barra Espaciadora.
GK’s Ponce told CPJ that the unprecedented crisis requires journalists and the media to build “support networks to safeguard the lives of journalists” working under threat. Ponce added that the press “must incorporate a culture of safety and become much more aware about what’s going on in this situation.”
“Ecuador has become a key puzzle piece for organized crime and shouldn’t be neglected. Institutions are being destroyed while the Amazon region is at grave risk,” said Cazar. Usually eclipsed by countries with heavier regional political weight, Ecuador and its problems have often been overlooked by the international community. “Our country is not collateral and should be the focus of global attention,” Cazar said.
Ecuadorian journalists and advocates are increasingly uneasy about the mounting problems facing local journalism in a climate of violence, fear, and intimidation that has fostered a culture of self-censorship. On top of that, recent memories of Correa’s damaging legacy are creating even more anxiety as the country waits to see if his party will succeed in the upcoming snap elections.
Journalists in particular are bracing for impact.
The Committee to Protect Journalists makes the following recommendations:
To the Ecuadorian executive branch
To Ecuadorian judicial, administrative, and law enforcement authorities
To the international community
On June 20, Ormaza, a reporter and newscaster for the privately owned broadcaster Majestad Televisión, was driving from her home in La Concordia to her outlet’s headquarters in the nearby northwestern city of Santo Domingo when a black SUV with no license plates swerved in front of her and forced her off the highway, according to news reports and the journalist, who communicated with CPJ by messaging app.
Ormaza lost control of her car, which went into a ditch and rolled on its side. She sustained minor injuries to her neck, chest, and legs in the accident.
On June 22, Ormaza received a message from a Facebook account she could not identify, saying: “Now you know what we are capable of. Your journalism does not scare us and the next time it won’t be an accident. It will be a bullet to the middle of your forehead.”
Ormaza said these incidents followed her TV report—which has since been removed from the station’s website due to safety concerns—about brakes failing on an overloaded bus causing a May 28 accident that killed two passengers and injured dozens. Ormaza resigned from the TV station on Monday, June 26, and said she and her family want to flee Ecuador amid the threats.
“Ecuadorian authorities must thoroughly investigate the recent harassment of journalist Lissette Ormaza and ensure that those who threatened her life are held to account,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in Quito. “At least two journalists have already fled Ecuador this year due to safety concerns. Authorities must use all resources at their disposal, including the country’s journalist protection mechanism, to ensure the safety of Ormaza and her family.”
When Ormaza sought comment from the bus company mentioned in her story, a manager ordered the journalist and her camera operator to leave. “He was very angry and tried to hit the camera,” Ormaza told CPJ.
In early and mid-June, she received four death threats from Facebook accounts she could not identify, according to Ormaza and screenshots reviewed by CPJ. One said: “I hope I don’t have to use the bullet that has your name on it. I hope you understand, snitch.”
After the car accident, Ormaza’s brother, who is a doctor, prescribed her pain medication and recommended she use an orthopedic brace on her neck. She did not report the highway incident or death threats to the police or attorney general’s office for fear of reprisal, she said.
CPJ called the bus company mentioned in Ormaza’s report and the police in Santo Domingo and emailed the attorney general’s office in Quito for comment, but did not receive any replies.
Crime and homicides, often carried out by drug-trafficking gangs, are rising in Ecuador, leading to a surge in threats and violence against the country’s journalists.
At a press conference in Quito on Wednesday, June 28, a CPJ delegation will release “Ecuador on edge,” a report documenting the impact of political paralysis and spiking crime on press freedom in Ecuador.
]]>On March 24, Noroña, a reporter for the independent Quito-based news website GK, met with a source who told her that the leader of a drug trafficking group had threatened to kill the journalist due to her reporting on organized crime and violence in Ecuador’s prisons, according to news reports and Isabela Ponce, GK’s editorial director, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app.
Within 24 hours, Noroña fled Ecuador, Ponce said. She declined to provide more details about the nature of the threat to protect Noroña and her sources. “The plan is for her to stay outside the country until her safe return is guaranteed,” Ponce said.
Ponce told CPJ that GK was still deciding whether to file a criminal complaint with the Attorney General’s office, partly because Noroña has reported on how some alleged drug traffickers and gang leaders may have received lenient treatment from that institution. The Attorney General’s office in Quito, the capital, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.
“Ecuadorian authorities must investigate who is behind the threats made to journalist Karol Noroña and ensure that she can return to Ecuador and report safely,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna, in New York. “It is essential that the Ecuadorian authorities take swift action to address threats and harassment to journalists and create an environment where journalists feel safe to do their work.”
Noroña reports on organized crime and Ecuador’s overcrowded penitentiaries that, in recent years, have been the scene of deadly riots that have killed hundreds of prisoners. In March, she reported on the attempted murder of the warden of the women’s prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, and conducted interviews with inmates on the high rate of homicides inside prisons.
In a March 28 statement, GK called the death threat against Noroña “another example of the security crisis and the penetration of drug trafficking in the country that affects all sectors of society.”
On April 3, the Quito-based free press group Fundamedios, in its quarterly report, found that Noroña’s case was the latest in a series of threats by criminal groups against Ecuadorian journalists that were silencing the press in the country. Among other incidents:
CPJ’s email to the Attorney General’s office in Quito about these cases did not receive a response.
A CPJ delegation will travel to Quito next week and meet with local journalists, editors, members of the national assembly, and authorities, including President Guillermo Lasso, to assess press freedom conditions.
]]>Since March 16, letter bombs have been sent to the TV stations Ecuavisa, Teleamazonas, and TC Television; the radio station EXA FM; and to one independent news commentator, according to multiple news reports and journalists who spoke with CPJ. One journalist sustained slight injuries after one of the devices exploded.
In each case, journalists received couriered manila envelopes containing USB drives and threatening messages sent from the central town of Quinsaloma, Interior Minister Juan Zapata told reporters on Monday.
“Ecuadorian authorities must thoroughly investigate letter bombs recently sent to journalists throughout the country and bring those responsible to justice,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ´s program director, in New York. “It is crucial that these threats are taken seriously and authorities make reporters’ safety a priority.”
On March 16, in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuavisa journalist Lenin Artieda received a package containing a USB stick. When he inserted the drive into his computer, it exploded and slightly injured his face and one of his hands, according to those news reports and Fundamedios, a press freedom group based in Quito, the capital.
The following day, TC Television news host Mauricio Ayora, also in Guayaquil, received a similar package, station manager Rafael Cuesta told CPJ via messaging app.
Following anti-virus protocols, Ayora did not try to access the information on the USB drive and, after learning about the attack on Artieda, the station turned the device over to the police, who confirmed it contained an explosive.
Identical packages were also sent to Teleamazonas journalist Milton Pérez and EXA FM journalist Miguel Rivadeneira, both in Quito, who handed them over to police, according to those news reports.
A fifth package, addressed to independent news commentator Carlos Vera, was intercepted by authorities before it reached him, those reports said.
Cuesta told CPJ that Ayora had received threats over his reporting on drug trafficking groups and prison riots in 2021, but doubted the bombs were related to that work. He said the packages contained messages that were confusing and did not have a clear specific motive.
“This is an absolutely clear effort to muzzle journalists who have been aggressive in their coverage or to muzzle the media,” said Zapata, adding that police were investigating the bombs. The attorney general’s office said in a statement Monday that it had also opened an investigation.
In a statement Monday, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso said that his government “categorically rejects any kind of violent acts against journalists.”
]]>On August 10, two gunmen shot and killed Delgado while he was in his car stopped at a traffic light on the outskirts of the Pacific coast city of Manta, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. Shortly before the shooting, Delgado had received a call informing him of a possible suicide—a report that turned out to be false—and was on his way to investigate, according to news reports.
Ricardo Lucas, fire chief of nearby Montecristi, told reporters that Delgado’s 19-year-old daughter was also in the car, but was unhurt in the shooting. Police later that night detained two suspected gunmen, one of whom said that he was to have been paid $2,000 for killing Delgado, according to news reports.
“We are shocked by the brazen killing of journalist Gerardo Delgado in broad daylight in Manta and urge Ecuadorian authorities to fully investigate whether he was targeted for his work,” CPJ Latin America and the Caribbean Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick said in New York. “While we are glad to see that authorities have acted swiftly to identify the gunmen, they must continue investigating to identify the masterminds and motive behind Delgado’s murder.”
Delgado, 39, posted videos about crime and neighborhood news on a Facebook page that he founded called Ola Manta TV. Rody Vélez, a Manta journalist and close friend of Delgado, told CPJ that Delgado sometimes criticized the Manta city government for the lack of streetlights, garbage collection, and other public services in poor neighborhoods. Due to such reporting, Vélez said that Delgado was well-known in Manta and considered running for a city council seat in local elections scheduled for next year.
“He was very passionate in his reports, and he always defended the victims,” Vélez told CPJ.
Ecuador’s Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo tweeted that authorities were trying to determine the motive for the crime, which is under investigation by the attorney general’s office.
César Ricaurte, director of the Quito-based press freedom group Fundamedios, told CPJ that since July, two Ecuadorian media workers—including Delgado—have been killed and that a third journalist remains missing after his abandoned car was found in a ditch. Ecuadorian authorities are investigating those other two cases, according to Ricaurte, but have failed to clarify whether the victims might have been targeted in relation to their reporting.
Ricaurte added that violent crime in and around Manta is rising in part due to disputes between drug-trafficking groups who are increasingly using Ecuador’s Pacific coast to export cocaine.
There was no response to CPJ’s text messages and emails to Manta City Hall and the Manta police. The press department of the attorney general’s office said in an email that it could not comment on the ongoing investigation into Delgado’s death.
]]>“The Inter-American Court’s decision in the El Universo case offers long-overdue international recognition of one of the most flagrant examples of officials’ use of defamation laws to harass the press during Rafael Correa’s presidency,” said CPJ Latin America and the Caribbean Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick. “The ruling leaves no doubt that it is past time for Ecuador to repeal its outdated and dangerous criminal defamation laws.”
The criminal suit, brought by then President Correa, was filed against El Universo journalist Emilio Palacio Urrutia and three executives at the outlet after it published a column by Palacio that referred to Correa as a “dictator” and accused him of giving troops permission to fire on a hospital during a police uprising in September 2010, an accusation that Correa denied.
In July 2011 an Ecuadorian court sentenced the defendants to three years in prison and ordered them to pay $40 million in fines, and in 2012 the country’s highest court upheld the convictions. Following the latter decision, Correa announced that he had pardoned the four. Palacio had already fled to the United States, where he was granted asylum in August 2012, according to reports.
On December 21, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued an announcement stating that, in November, it had ruled that the Ecuadorian state had violated the defendants’ rights, including the right to free expression, and called on authorities to annul their past convictions. Ecuador made a partial acknowledgment of responsibility for failing to guarantee those rights, according to the ruling.
]]>On September 14, police officers and agents from the local attorney general’s office raided Chimbolema’s office in the central Ecuadorian town of Tena and confiscated his laptop, memory cards, and mobile phone, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and a statement by the Ecuadorian free press organization Fundamedios.
Chimbolema runs the Facebook-based local news outlet La Voz TV Online, which has about 17,000 followers.
He said authorities did not tell him why they raided his office, but it was likely linked to his publication of a September 9 article about raids by police and the attorney general’s office of five properties in Tena as part of a bank fraud investigation.
He said the report contained detailed information about the raids provided to him by an anonymous source, and that authorities may be retaliating against him for allegedly interfering in an ongoing investigation. In its statement, Fundamedios said that the attorney general’s office told them it was investigating a leak of classified information about an ongoing case.
“Ecuadorian authorities must disclose their justification for the seemingly arbitrary raid on journalist Fausto Chimbolema’s office, return all his confiscated equipment, and allow his outlet La Voz TV Online to resume work at once,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “Reporting on the work of public authorities is not a crime.”
Chimbolema told CPJ that he received a WhatsApp message after publishing the September 9 article ordering him to go to the attorney general’s office in Tena on September 20 to provide testimony.
When Chimbolema went to that office, public prosecutor Rocio Villareal, who took part in the raid on his office, declined to ask him any questions after the journalist said that his lawyer told him not to answer any, he said.
Chimbolema told CPJ that he posted his story about the raids after they were already completed, adding, “It was never my intention to interfere with the investigation.”
Chimbolema told CPJ that he founded La Voz TV Online last year to report on local news stories. He separately produces videos of weddings and birthday parties, but told CPJ that he can no longer perform that work or post stories to La Voz TV Online because his laptop and cell phone remain in official custody.
CPJ repeatedly called the local attorney general’s office in Tena, but no one answered. CPJ also emailed the press office of the national attorney general’s office in Quito, the capital, but did not receive any reply.
]]>Suárez, who covers politics in the central town of Ventanas for her twice-weekly live news program called “Tus noches con Virginia” (Your nights with Virginia) on the Facebook-based news outlet Digital Vir’s, told CPJ via messaging app that she received a threatening message on August 24 on the outlet’s Facebook page as she was reporting from a local cemetery.
She said she was interviewing residents about their complaints about an effort by town officials to expropriate land to expand the cemetery when a commenter wrote, “You probably want to be found in the cemetery as well, with your mouth open and full of flies.”
She told CPJ that her colleagues at Digital Vir’s saw the message and told her about it after the commentator quickly deleted it.
After doing follow-up interviews at the cemetery on August 27, Suárez told CPJ that she returned to her parked car and found a note on the window saying: “If you keep publishing your complaints you will end up in the cemetery face up and covered in ants.” Suarez threw the note away after receiving it. CPJ was not able to independently verify either threat.
Suárez also described the threats in an interview with Fundamedios, an Ecuadorian press freedom organization.
“Journalists must be able to report on sensitive issues without fear for their safety,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “Ecuadorian authorities must investigate who is behind the threats made to journalist Virginia Suárez and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.”
Suárez told CPJ she has never before faced death threats for her reporting. “I got scared,” she said.
Suárez said she filed a complaint, which CPJ reviewed, about the death threats to the regional branch of the attorney general’s office in Ventanas. CPJ left a voice message seeking comment from that office but there was no response.
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