Forced disappearances and torture: Ecuador's war on drugs is brutal and backed by US troops

A pre-dawn raid began at 4am when soldiers entered a family home with rifles raised. The family matriarch said the soldiers claimed they were acting under emergency powers and pointed guns at the family. The soldiers separated two teenage boys from the rest of the household and said they were taking them for an ongoing investigation, warning that resistance would lead to teargas. For days, the family searched multiple places without finding the boys. After fifteen days, one boy reappeared bruised and scared, reporting beatings and threats at a disused fire station. A week later, the boys were driven to a cornfield where gunshots were heard and one cousin was killed. The surviving boy escaped but later disappeared again, and the family has not received further information.

"The raid began at 4am. As the children slept, soldiers charged into the family home, rifles raised. They said they were entering under the emergency powers, says Rosa*, the family's matriarch, whose name has been changed for fear of retaliation. They pointed their guns at us. I thought they were going to kill us all. The soldiers quickly singled out her son, 16-year-old Jairo Damian Tapia Alvarez, and her nephew, 17-year-old Jostin Elian Alvarez Chavez, she says, separating the boys from the family. They said they were taking them in for an ongoing investigation and that, if we resisted, we would all be teargassed, she says."

"For days, the family searched frantically for the boys at prosecutors' offices, police stations, hospitals, prisons, fields and even rubbish dumps. We don't know where the boys are. All these missing children where are they? Rosa Fifteen days later, Jostin reappeared. Bruised and scared, he said soldiers had tied up him and his cousin in a disused fire station, where they were beaten for information on people and criminal activities they knew nothing about. The soldiers threatened to kill the boys."

"Then, a week after they were detained, the boys were driven to a cornfield. Jairo and another detainee were taken from the van; the soldiers carried guns and shovels. Moments later, Jostin heard two gunshots. We killed your cousin. Are you sad?, the soldiers asked him repeatedly in the days afterwards, Jostin said. Eventually, he managed to escape the soldiers and return home, but weeks later, disappeared again. Friends who were with him at the time said the military had taken him."

"We haven't heard anything since, Rosa says. We don't know where the boys are. All these missing children where are they? Jostin Elian Alvarez Chavez, 17, left, who escaped detention but has since disappeared again and Jairo Damian Tapia Alvarez, 16, allegedly shot dead by soldiers. Photograph: Handout The Alvarez cousins, who went missing in September 2024, are among at"

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