This case marks first conviction for human rights violations under Noboa’s internal armed conflict decree.
On Monday, an Ecuadorian court sentenced 11 soldiers to 34 years and eight months in prison for the forced disappearance of four Afro-Ecuadorian minors, whom they irregularly detained in December 2024 in Guayaquil and who were found days later burned and with gunshot wounds.
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For another five soldiers who accepted a plea deal as cooperating witnesses, the judges ordered 30 months in prison, while a lieutenant colonel who had been prosecuted as an accomplice was acquitted of all charges.
The court thus accepted the request made by the Prosecutor’s Office for 16 of the 17 defendants. All were also ordered to pay a fine of US$376,000 and compensation of US$10,000 to the families of the minors.
The court further ordered them to issue a public apology and to publish an excerpt of the ruling in the country’s largest-circulation national media outlet.
This is the most serious case of human rights violations recorded under the “Internal Armed Conflict” declared by President Daniel Noboa in January 2024. It is also the first case to reach a verdict, as human rights organizations have documented at least 33 incidents of serious abuses against the population.
Watch Los 4 de las Malvinas, a harrowing documentary exposing a brutal crime of state in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Ismael, Nehemías, Josué, and Steven—boys aged 11 to 13—vanished from Las Malvinas one afternoon. Days later, their lifeless bodies were found, victims of a calculated… pic.twitter.com/nLMNbD9cXA
— Jonni Martinez (@iJonniM) April 7, 2025
The “Las Malvinas boys” case dates back to Dec. 8, 2024, when 16 soldiers detained Ismael and Josue Arroyo, ages 15 and 14, and their friends Saul Arboleda, 15, and Steven Medina, 11, outside a shopping center in Guayaquil after receiving an alleged alert that the minors were supposedly committing theft.
Instead of handing them over to police, the soldiers took them to Taura, a town about 25 miles from Guayaquil, near an Air Force base, where they forced them to strip and abandoned them.
Prosecutor Christian Farez, from the Unit for the Investigation of Illegal Use of Force, said during the trial that the soldiers exposed the boys to a “high risk” by leaving them in that “danger zone,” and that their murder could have been avoided had that not happened or had the soldiers immediately notified authorities, a point upheld by the court.
The burned remains of the minors were found several days later in a nearby mangrove area, and autopsies determined the presence of gunshot wounds in at least three of the victims.
Ahora que ya se dictó sentencia por el crimen de los 4 niños de Las Malvinas jamás hay que olvidar cuando el miserable que hoy funge de Ministro de Defensa, amenazó a una jueza en cadena nacional rodeado de militares. pic.twitter.com/OT0AWR5g3C
— Cristian Murillo (@socialholico) December 22, 2025
The text reads, “Now that a sentence has been handed down for the murder of the four children in the Malvinas, we must never forget that, during a national broadcast, the despicable man who now serves as Defense Minister threatened a judge surrounded by military personnel.”
Judge Jovanny Suarez, who wrote the ruling, said prosecutors were able to prove that the minors were subjected to cruel treatment and endured moments of “horror.”
Testimony from cooperating witnesses was key, as they confessed that several of their colleagues abused, insulted and severely beat the boys, even with weapons.
Suarez noted that one witness turned over a video in which another soldier is heard telling one of the children: “Be grateful, Black kid, that I didn’t put a bullet in you.”
He also said there was a “pact of silence,” as none of them notified police about the detention and instead concealed the truth by telling their superiors that nothing unusual had occurred during the night.
After hearing the verdict, a group of relatives, neighbors and other acquaintances who gathered outside the courthouse celebrated by chanting “justice.”
#FromTheSouth News Bits | Ecuador: One year after the disappearance of four minors from the Las Malvinas neighborhood, the Regional Foundation for Human Rights Advisory Services (INREDH) denounced the lack of response from President Daniel Noboa’s administration. pic.twitter.com/FsjNQ5LD3R
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) December 12, 2025
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Source: EFE
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