Forced disappearances and torture: Ecuador’s war on drugs is brutal – and backed by US troops

Western allies are aiding Daniel Noboa’s militarised crackdown, despite reports of widespread rights abuses

The raid began at 4am. As the children slept, soldiers charged into the family home, rifles raised. “They said they were entering under the emergency powers,” says Rosa*, the family’s matriarch, whose name has been changed for fear of retaliation. “They pointed their guns at us. I thought they were going to kill us all.”

The soldiers quickly singled out her son, 16-year-old Jairo Damián Tapia Álvarez, and her nephew, 17-year-old Jostin Elian Álvarez Chávez, she says, separating the boys from the family.

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