QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — An Ecuadorean judge Tuesday ordered the arrest of 16 soldiers charged with the disappearance of four children who went missing three weeks ago in the coastal city of Guayaquil.
A request to detain the soldiers was made by Ecuador’s Attorney General’s office. In a statement on X the law enforcement agency said its request had been granted, adding that the detained soldiers would be transferred from a military base to a prison.
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A mural of a child and the Spanish message "Where are they?" cover a wall in protest of the disappearance of four children who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
Luis Arroyo, left, carries photos of his two missing sons, Ismael and Josué, who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy with two other youths, as he protests with his family and activists outside the prosecutor's office in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
A protester holds soccer cleats and wears a shirt that reads in Spanish "We're soccer players, not delinquents" outside the court holding a hearing for the soldiers accused of being connected to the disappearance of four children in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. The children disappeared after playing soccer. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
Protesters gather outside the court that is holding a hearing for the soldiers accused of being connected to the disappearance of four children in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. The children disappeared after playing soccer. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
Protesters gather outside the court that is holding a hearing for the soldiers accused of being connected to the disappearance of four children in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. The sign reads in Spansh: "Where are the four from Guayaquil?" (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
Protesters shout as lawyers enter court for a hearing for the soldiers accused of being connected to the disappearance of four children in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
The case of the missing children has shaken Ecuador, a nation where the military has been increasingly deployed to patrol cities and fight drug gangs amid growing levels of violence.
The children, aged 11 to 15, were reported missing by their parents on Dec. 8, after they went to play soccer in a working-class sector of Guayaquil and did not return home.
A video taken by a security camera shows a military patrol taking two of the children into the back of a pickup truck and driving off with them.
Ecuador’s military has admitted the children were in its custody and claimed they were arrested because they were participating in a robbery attempt.
The military says the children were released on the same night they were detained and that gangs are to blame for their disappearance.
Meanwhile, detectives last week found four charred bodies near a military base on the outskirts of Guayaquil. On Tuesday afternoon, the Attorney General's office said that genetic tests conducted on the bodies, whose faces and fingerprints were unrecognizable, determined that the corpses were those of the missing children.
Prosecutors working on the case said they will now have to seek an additional hearing with a judge to issue new charges against the detained soldiers, who will possibly face murder charges.
“This is a tough moment for the families" said Billy Navarrete, the director of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization that has followed the case and provided advice to the childrens' relatives. “We will not stop until we find truth and justice.”
The case of the four missing children has led to protests in Guayaquil and shocked a nation struggling to contain homicides, extortion and human rights abuses.
Violence in Ecuador worsened in January after a gang leader escaped from prison amid deadly riots. Two days later, members of another drug gang attacked a television channel and interrupted a live broadcast to make demands to the government.
President Daniel Noboa’s government has leaned on the military to curb gang violence. However, the military has now been implicated in several abuses, including the disappearance of two children in August in the central province of Los Rios, and the case of a 19-year-old who was fatally shot by the military at a checkpoint on a road in Guayaquil.
Noboa, a Guayaquil native, is planning to run for re-election in February. The conservative politician, who belongs to one of the country's wealthiest families, has promised to reduce violence and solve power shortages that have hurt Ecuador's economy.
A mural of a child and the Spanish message "Where are they?" cover a wall in protest of the disappearance of four children who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
Luis Arroyo, left, carries photos of his two missing sons, Ismael and Josué, who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy with two other youths, as he protests with his family and activists outside the prosecutor's office in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
A protester holds soccer cleats and wears a shirt that reads in Spanish "We're soccer players, not delinquents" outside the court holding a hearing for the soldiers accused of being connected to the disappearance of four children in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. The children disappeared after playing soccer. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
Protesters gather outside the court that is holding a hearing for the soldiers accused of being connected to the disappearance of four children in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. The children disappeared after playing soccer. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
Protesters gather outside the court that is holding a hearing for the soldiers accused of being connected to the disappearance of four children in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. The sign reads in Spansh: "Where are the four from Guayaquil?" (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
Protesters shout as lawyers enter court for a hearing for the soldiers accused of being connected to the disappearance of four children in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
