By Yury Garcia and Alexandra Valencia
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (Reuters) -A judge in Ecuador on Tuesday ordered 16 members of the country’s air force be detained while prosecutors investigate their alleged participation in the forced disappearance of four minors, the attorney general’s office said.
The children, boys between 11 and 15 years old, disappeared on Dec. 8 from a neighborhood in the coastal city of Guayaquil.
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The case has sparked outrage throughout Ecuador with protests in Quito, the capital, and elsewhere to demand answers over the whereabouts of the four boys.
“We won’t accept it. We are angry and indignant because the government and the authorities have not said anything,” said retiree Fernando Bustamante, 70, who stood with other protesters outside the court in Guayaquil where the judge made the ruling.
The boys disappeared amid a government crackdown on crime. President Daniel Noboa has designated some 22 criminal gangs as terrorist organizations and declared a series of states of emergency, allowing members of the military to patrol streets and assist law enforcement efforts.
Commanders of Ecuador’s armed forces said last week that the children were detained while allegedly committing a robbery and subsequently taken to a military base before being released.
The 16 individuals under investigation were placed in military custody last week and could face disciplinary action for detaining the minors.
The youths were apprehended in an “unforeseen” manner by a patrol that had carried out an operation to support customs officials nearby, air force commander general Celiano Cevallos said on Monday.
The four boys left home to play soccer on the day they disappeared, according to comments from their families reported in local media.
No official report of the arrests or the alleged robbery was made and the location where the boys were released is unknown, according to lawyers representing the children’s families.
(Reporting by Yury Garcia in Guayaquil and Alexandra Valencia in QuitoWriting by Oliver GriffinEditing by Leslie Adler)
