According to the CIVICUS Monitor, civic space in Ecuador is rated as “obstructed”. Journalists and political candidates have been targeted by state and non-state actors in the context of the August 2023 elections and a deepening security crisis. On 17th May 2023, President Guillermo Lasso decreed the dissolution of the country’s unicameral parliament using a constitutional clause known as “cross-death” which allows for the dissolution of the legislature and a call for new legislative and presidential elections. Days before the elections, journalist and presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was murdered in Quito after receiving threats in the previous weeks.  

Media outlets and journalists were threatened and attacked not only in the context of elections. Media workers were forced to leave the country to safeguard their lives and physical integrity because their  journalistic investigations exposed an alleged corruption network within public enterprises and organised crime. Environmental defenders and indigenous people are at risk of attacks for protesting against extracting activities, and several have been killed over the past year.

For more information about the country, visit https://monitor.civicus.org/country/ecuador/