The complaints arose after the Ecuadorian President, Daniel Noboa, declared a state of “internal armed conflict” in the country at the beginning of April. In a letter addressed to the President, the New York-based human rights organization said that the violations include at least one possible “extrajudicial execution” and “multiple cases of arbitrary detention and ill-treatment by state forces and agencies.” Although homicides have decreased, extortion and kidnapping have increased and the security situation “remains dire,” the letter said. “The escalating violence and growth of organized crime in Ecuador are putting the lives of Ecuadorians and their institutions at risk,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of baselessly declaring an ‘armed conflict,’ the government should respond to the violence with an effective security policy that protects Ecuadorians and respects human rights,” she warned. Homicides in Ecuador increased by 574% between 2019 and 2023, raising the homicide rate from just over seven to more than 47 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organized Crime. Two of the main gangs – Los Choneros and Los Lobos – have allied themselves with Colombian, Mexican and Albanian drug traffickers and are fighting for control of territory and drug trafficking routes in the country. In this regard, the announcement of an “armed conflict” following the violent siege of the headquarters of the state television station TC Televisión by armed men and the escape from prison of José Adolfo ‘Fito’ Macías Villamar, leader of Los Choneros, led Noboa to declare war on more than 20 organized crime groups, which he described as “terrorists.” Noboa ordered the armed forces to carry out “military operations, under international humanitarian law and respecting human rights, to neutralize” 22 organized crime groups. However, international law states that the existence of an armed conflict depends on an objective analysis of criteria on the level of organization of these armed groups and the intensity of the attacks, HRW stressed. In this regard, HRW accused the Ecuadorian authorities of not having presented sufficient evidence on the nature of the confrontations with any of the 22 criminal groups. The organization estimates that many of those detained in army operations “were never presented” to a prosecutor or judge, despite the fact that the police and military “are obliged to inform prosecutors of the arrests they make.” HRW also accused the army, which has controlled Ecuador's prisons since January, of “holding detainees incommunicado, sometimes obstructing their right to consult lawyers or obtain medical assistance.” In this regard, Human Rights Watch stressed that it is the military that “appears to be responsible for multiple cases of ill-treatment and torture in prisons.” “During a court hearing, one detainee described how soldiers beat him on the back with a cable and stepped on his finger,” the text says. The NGO warned that the Ecuadorian authorities seem “to have failed to take sufficient steps to prevent human rights violations or to ensure that those responsible are held accountable.” Instead, the deputies said they were even in favor of “pardoning members of the police and the army, if necessary, to guarantee their work,” while Noboa accused a judge who ruled on alleged human rights violations in the country's prisons of being “unpatriotic.” “The armed forces are not trained for surveillance and investigation. Putting them in that role increases the risk of abuse,” said the Americas director of Human Rights Watch, who stated that 'the government should limit the actions of the armed forces to strictly necessary circumstances'. “Ecuador needs more judicial officials and a better trained police to investigate organized crime, not more soldiers on the streets,” she concluded. Also Read: End of electricity rationing in Ecuador with the return of rain (Portuguese version)