What’s behind the forced disappearances in Ecuador?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 747 Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ecuadorians say civilians are being abducted off the street as part of the military crackdown on drug cartels. President Daniel Noboa deployed Ecuador’s military to combat gangs after declaring an ‘internal armed conflict’ in 2024. A new film from Al Jazeera's Faultlines hears from the family members of those who have been taken and human rights groups about the growing calls for justice.
In this episode:
- Jeremy Young (@YoungRJeremy), Senior Investigative Producer, Al Jazeera
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by David Enders and Chloe K. Li with Tuleen Barakat, Marcos Bartolomé and our guest host, Kevin Hirten. It was edited by Tamara Khandaker.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, Ecuador's disappeared. |
| 0:13.5 | Why have the old forces disappeared people? |
| 0:18.3 | The best answer I can give you is that they are doing it because they can. |
| 0:23.4 | The country's military says it's fighting drug cartels, |
| 0:26.8 | but in that fight, human rights groups say civilians are being taken too. |
| 0:33.5 | I'm Kevin Horton, and this is The Take. |
| 0:49.1 | Before we continue with today's show, remember to leave us a comment telling us what you think about this episode. |
| 0:52.2 | Were you aware of this issue of forced disappearances in Ecuador? |
| 0:55.8 | What does it say about the balance between law and order? |
| 1:00.9 | And remember, if you're on your favorite podcast app, please leave us a review at a five-star rating. |
| 1:02.0 | It helps the show. |
| 1:12.2 | My name is Jeremy Young. I'm a senior producer at Fault Lines on Al Jazeera, and I'm based out of our bureau in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:14.6 | Jeremy, welcome to the take. |
| 1:17.3 | So this latest film is for Fault Lines. |
| 1:25.4 | It's called Ecuador's Disappeared, and it talks about this recent phenomenon of military patrols forcibly abducting people on the streets. |
| 1:30.5 | And I was thinking maybe we should start with why the military are patrolling the streets in the first place, |
| 1:33.9 | and that is this shocking security situation in the country. |
| 1:38.3 | Jeremy, Ecuador used to be one of the safest countries in Latin America. |
| 1:39.6 | What changed? |
| 1:41.5 | Yeah, it's really sad. |
| 1:46.7 | I mean, it's a marvelous country, Ecuador, but geography-wise, it's sandwiched between Peru and Colombia, who are the number one and number two largest producers of cocaine in the |
... |
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