Ecuador 2019 Crime & Safety Report: Guayaquil The current U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory at the date of this report's publication assesses Ecuador at Level 1, indicating travelers should exercise normal precautions. The constitution provides indigenous persons the right to self-determination, autonomy, and education. Nevertheless, only 2 percent of schoolteachers in the country were trained to teach children with disabilities, according to the civil society organization Yo Tambien. A warrant for arrest is not required if an official has direct evidence regarding a persons involvement in a crime, such as having witnessed the commission of a crime; in a 2018 report, the domestic think tank Mexico Evalua determined that 90 percent of all arrests fell under this category. Failure to register births could result in the denial of public services such as education or health care. Citizens generally registered the births of newborns with local authorities. Between January and April the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Electoral Crimes in the Attorney Generals Office initiated 14 investigations related to gender-based political violence against women. Civil society organizations alleged that workers were prohibited from leaving by threats of violence or by nonpayment of wages. Labor inspections focused on the formal sector, leaving informal workers with no labor law protection. After the STPS canceled the vote, in May the rapid response mechanism under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement commenced, and the government agreed to review a denial of freedom of association and collective bargaining rights at the plant, confirming the denial of rights. The midterms marked a large increase in female candidates. See the Department of States International Religious Freedom Report at https://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and NGOs expressed concerns regarding arbitrary detention and the potential for it to lead to other human rights abuses. Most formal-sector workers (70 percent) received between one and three times the minimum wage. A Mexico City municipal law provides increased penalties for hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Political parties nominated more female candidates for public office in the midterm elections than ever before, including half of their candidates for governor in the 15 races up for election. The filtering tool offers the user the ability to fully customize the app and . Some public officials blocked critical journalists and media from following their social media accounts. Users can access Events, OSAC Analysis reports, Incident reports, and Crime & Safety reports. The CNDH reported indigenous women were among the most vulnerable groups in society. Between January and June, state authorities opened 10,458 new rape investigations. Google received more removal requests from government agents in 2020 than in any other year except 2014. The constitution prohibits discrimination based on ethnicity, and a federal law prohibits all forms of discrimination. The guidelines allow internet service providers to deny access to certain applications, content, and services based on commercial criteria, in breach of their obligations to protect neutrality. There were credible reports that members of security forces committed some abuses. As of August, 25 of 32 states had specialized prosecutors offices for investigating torture, or specialized investigative units within the state attorney generals office as called for by law. Reproductive Rights: There were no confirmed reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization on the part of government authorities. The NGO Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights identified 15 incidents between January and July of mass forced internal displacement (defined as the displacement of at least 10 families or 50 individuals) due to violence. In January 2020 the government raised the minimum wage. There were repeated reports of excessive use of force by police officials when detaining people or policing protests and by members of the National Migration Institute (INM) and the National Guard against migrants. Citizens have access to an independent judiciary in civil matters to seek civil remedies for human rights abuses. On June 17, while journalist Gustavo Sanchez Cabrera was riding his motorcycle, two unidentified individuals in a car crashed into him, exited the car, and fatally shot him. Rape and Domestic Violence: Federal law criminalizes the rape of men and women, including spousal rape, and conviction carries penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment. Access to Asylum: Federal law provides for granting asylum, refugee status, or complementary protection to those fleeing persecution or facing possible threats to their life, security, or liberty in their country of origin; this right was generally respected. On August 28, approximately 500 migrants, the majority from Haiti, started a caravan from Tapachula to Mexico City to obtain expedited asylum processing. The law mandates that all discrimination cases, including sexual harassment, bypass formerly mandatory conciliation and proceed directly to the labor courts. The report noted 40 state prisons experienced overcrowding. In June a federal judge sentenced Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto to 32 years in prison for the 2017 murder of journalist Javier Valdez Cardenas. Some civil society groups, however, asserted that state commissions were subservient to the state executive branch. INEGI reported in 2017 that 23 percent of working women experienced violence in the workplace within the past 12 months and that 6 percent experienced sexual violence. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) issued a news release on November 5, 2021 announcing the 14 laboratories in its Crime Laboratory Division have been recognized as implementers of the standards on the OSAC Registry. The law prohibits minors from working in a broad list of hazardous and unhealthy occupations. In-person classes resumed in October 2021, but with limited . Authorities sometimes failed to respect court orders, and arrest warrants were sometimes ignored. In June authorities sentenced Quintana Roo police officer Miguel Mora Olvera to five years in prison for his role in torturing Cacho. The law also provides for the rights of appeal and of bail in most categories of crimes. In February authorities arrested 12 state police officers in Camargo, Tamaulipas, on homicide charges in connection with the massacre and burning of the bodies of three smugglers and 16 Guatemalan migrants en route to the United States. The new wage applied to all sectors and allowed an earner to reach or exceed the poverty line. Horrio de atendimento: Segunda - Sexta das 17h s 21h. In July the Mexico City congress passed a law to provide, promote, and protect LGBTQI+ human rights. The government approved the National Work and Employment Program for People with Disabilities 2021-2024, aimed at strengthening labor inclusion of persons with disabilities and supporting the employment of persons with disabilities in decent work. The Federal Center, however, estimated that only 10 to 15 percent of those collective bargaining agreements would undergo a legitimization vote because the worksite where the agreement was valid had closed, the work for which the agreement was negotiated had concluded, or the contract was a protection contract held by a nonrepresentative union. The National Migration Institute, under the authority of the Interior Secretariat, is responsible for enforcing migration law. Some detainees complained of a lack of access to family members and to counsel after police held persons incommunicado for several days and made arrests arbitrarily without a warrant. The STPS has the authority to order labor inspections at any time in the event of labor law violations, imminent risk to employees, or workplace accidents. State and federal prosecutors are independent of the executive branch and have the final authority to investigate and prosecute security force abuses. The government did not enforce the law effectively. According to National Security Secretariat statistics, between January and June, state-level prosecutors and attorneys general opened 495 femicide investigations throughout the country, exceeding the 477 state-level femicide investigations opened in the first half of 2020 (statistics from state-level reports often conflated femicides with all killings of women). Womens rights activists supported the law as critical to combat the increasingly prevalent problem of online sexual harassment. Nonetheless, NGOs and media reported on sexual exploitation of minors, as well as child sex tourism in resort towns and northern border areas. As part of that process, the Federal Center published a new legitimization protocol to include a mechanism that allows for submission of complaints regarding alleged irregularities that may happen prior to, during, and after the vote. The law prohibits compulsory overtime. International Child Abductions: The country is party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Defendants have the right to an attorney of their choice at all stages of criminal proceedings. San Luis Potos, SLP.- San Luis Potos is the second most dangerous city in the country, according to the National Victimization Survey on Public Safety (Envipe) 2021, carried out by INEGI. President Lopez Obrador condemned the threats, and the Interior Secretariat confirmed that authorities would grant Uresti protection measures. The CNDHs 2020 National Diagnostic of Penitentiary Supervision reported that state prisons were understaffed and suffered from poor sanitary conditions as well as a lack of separation between those sentenced and those awaiting trial. In October 2020 authorities announced they would release Brenda Quevedo Cruz, who had been in prison without trial since 2007. In June President Lopez Obrador announced that forensic scientists at the University of Innsbruck conclusively identified the remains of Jhosivani Guerrero, marking the third body identified of the 43 disappeared students. This mass displacement elevated the groups risk of malnutrition and health maladies. As of August 16, authorities had not arrested any suspects. In March 2020 a federal judge issued an arrest warrant for Zeron on charges related to his conduct of the investigation, including torturing alleged perpetrators to force confessions, conducting forced disappearances, altering the crime scene, manipulating evidence, and failing to perform his duties.