For decades, 31 peasant families in the Los Ángeles community in Durán have worked and defended the same 94 hectares of land. In April, they lost it. Their struggle is that of land defenders who chose to claim their rights through the law, and who now face threats, eviction and a justice system that is slow to protect them.
The families belong to the Montubio people and organised themselves into associations to claim their rights under Ecuador’s Agrarian Law. They were among the first to use it this way. In November 2023, the land was awarded to one of their associations. Three weeks later, it was sold to a company created only days earlier. The families say the sale breaks the law and have asked for it to be annulled.
What followed was a steady escalation of pressure on those defending their land. The company filed complaints for land invasion, which were dismissed. Even so, a police eviction order was issued on 30 December 2025 and carried out on 14 April 2026. Children, elderly people and people with disabilities were among those affected, and homes, crops and livelihoods were lost. The families also report threats from private security, damaged crops and police raids, including threats against women in leadership roles.
They went to court. Their request for protection was rejected in January, and the same ruling asked the Judicial Council to investigate one of their lawyers for “abuse of rights”, a worrying signal for those who accompany defenders legally. The appeal was due to be heard on 6 July but was postponed by nearly five months, to 27 November, after two of the three judges did not attend.
Their story is not isolated and is illustrative of a pattern. A report by FIDH, CIVICUS, Front Line Defenders, 11.11.11 and other organisations describes a country that has lived under repeated states of emergency since March 2024, with the armed forces taking on a growing role in public security. Violent deaths have reached historic highs, and serious violations are reported in militarised areas, hitting Indigenous, Afrodescendant and rural communities hardest. The report also documents a concerning and accelerating deterioration of civic space: violent repression of peaceful protests led by Indigenous movements, including the 2025 national strike, the criminalisation and stigmatisation of human rights and environmental defenders, and the persecutory use of administrative, financial and legal measures against defenders and civil society organisations.Extractive industries, from mining and oil to agribusiness and fishing, sit at the heart of many of these conflicts. As one of the organisations put it, what is at stake is who decides about the territories.
The State has yet to acknowledge the scale of the problem or adopt effective measures to protect defenders. Ecuador should ensure civilian and judicial oversight of the use of force, end the criminalisation of defenders and protesters, and respect communities’ free, prior and informed consent. They also ask the international community not to treat the erosion of rights as the price of security or growth.“Defending human rights and nature is not a crime, as Ecuador’s own Constitution recognizes,”. The State has an obligation to protect those who defend the rights of their communities, not to persecute them.
Defending land is defending life, food and community. We stand with the families of Los Ángeles and with all those who defend their territories. The next hearing is on 27 November.
