Ecuador has seen a sharp rise in violence due to international drug cartels establishing cocaine trafficking routes to the coast.

President Daniel Noboa has attempted to curb the violence with heavy police and military deployments, but his government faces allegations of human rights abuses, including enforced disappearances.

In a new Fault Lines episode, Al Jazeera investigates claims that 51 people have been forcibly disappeared during military operations since early 2024.

Families Seek Answers Amid Slow Investigations

Leonardo Alarcon, acting attorney general, told Al Jazeera that there are 34 preliminary investigations for 51 victims in progress.

“The cases are progressing, but the investigations have to be objective and conducted rigorously in order to present the judge with the necessary and compelling evidence to prove the case,” Alarcon said.

Families of the missing, however, argue the investigations are moving at a snail’s pace.

Rosario Villon, whose brother Jonathan has been missing for almost a year and a half, said it gets harder every time her nephew asks when his father will come home.

Jonathan, a 31-year-old father of three, was last seen on December 9, 2024, when he left to pick up groceries in Guayaquil.

Rosario described the emotional toll his disappearance has taken on her family.

“Seeing my mother cry for her son, not knowing what to do next to bring him home — it isn’t easy,” she said.

Fault Lines has reviewed footage from the day Jonathan was detained, showing soldiers patrolling his neighborhood, Nueva Prosperina.

A neighbor’s video captured the moments after Jonathan was forced into the truck’s bed under a wooden bench, though the truck then drove off, and he has not been seen since.

Jonathan’s partner, Yadira Bohorquez, said the family recorded the licence plate numbers of the municipal vehicle the soldiers were using, but the military has refused to respond.

“We have the evidence, we have videos, we have the licence plates of the truck, and they won’t give us a concrete and exact answer; What happened to my husband?” Bohorquez asked.

A Single Case Gains National Attention

Lawyers for Jonathan’s family say the military denied having operations in the area on that date, despite video evidence.

“The case of Jonathan Villon is completely paralysed by the refusal of the Ministry of Defence to cooperate in handing over information that the Prosecutor’s Office has already requested,” said Fernando Bastias, a lawyer with CDH Guayaquil, a human rights nonprofit representing the family.

Only one case has garnered national attention, leading to soldiers being held accountable; the victims are known as “The Malvinas 4,” named after a neighborhood in southern Guayaquil.

Just one day before Jonathan was detained, four Afro-Ecuadorian boys, aged 11 to 15, were walking home from playing football.

They never made it back. Initially, the military denied any role in their disappearance, but surveillance footage later showed Air Force officers forcing them into the bed of a truck.

Luis Arroyo, the father of two of the boys, said the soldiers lied from the start.

“They have been lying from the start. At first, they never hit them. They never tortured them. They left them safe and sound. But after the investigations, then they changed their tune,” Arroyo said.

The remains of the four boys, including Arroyo’s sons, Ismael and Josue, were ultimately found burned in a remote area called Taura.

Five of the soldiers accused of participating in the boys’ disappearance cooperated with prosecutors — they admitted to beating the boys and leaving them naked, far outside the city.

At the conclusion of the trial in December 2025, they received a sentence of 30 months — the 11 soldiers who did not cooperate received more than 30 years in prison.

Human Rights Groups Highlight the Significance

Camila Ruiz Segovia, a campaigner with Amnesty International, said the conviction of the soldiers is significant in Ecuador and Latin America.

“It is not normal for the military to get convicted for enforced disappearances; it might deter the military from committing further violations, and that’s why it’s important to keep pushing for the other cases,” Segovia said.

Fault Lines reached out to the Ecuadorian military and the office of President Noboa about the allegations of forced disappearances but did not receive a response.

Meanwhile, families like the Villons continue to push for the truth about their loved ones’ whereabouts, as But without the cooperation of the military, they remain in a state of limbo.

“I pray to God a lot to touch the hearts of those soldiers, and that they tell us what happened to our family members,” said Bohorquez, Jonathan’s partner.

“I hope that we are victorious in this battle and that all of our family members, all of them, are alive.”