ECUADOR TIP INTERIM ASSESSMENT

UNCLAS QUITO 002844 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/PPC, WHA/AND, AND G/TIP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL EC SUBJECT: ECUADOR TIP INTERIM ASSESSMENT REF: A. STATE 182957 ¶B. QUITO 2428 ¶C. QUITO 2681 ¶1. Summary: This cable responds to specific questions in Ref A pertaining to Ecuador's progress on anti-TIP, summarizing developments which have occurred since the submission of the Embassy's TIP report in March. Sections below are keyed to parts a, b, and c of paragraph 6.E of Ref A, and all dates refer to developments in 2006. End Summary. ¶2. Progress Ecuador has made in providing sufficient staff, training, and resources to ensure traffickers face prompt prosecutions: Ecuador's Attorney General identified specialized TIP prosecutors in the provinces of Pichincha, Guayas and El Oro in February, 2006. These three provinces have the highest TIP prosecution workload. The Pichincha and El Oro TIP Prosecutors have been assigned police protection due to threats associated with their cases in process. In September, the Ecuador Public Ministry established a specialized 14-member Special Sexual Crimes Police Unit in Guayas, the most populous province of Ecuador, which will investigate TIP crimes. In April, child welfare police ("DINAPEN") created an eight-member TIP intelligence unit based in Quito. DINAPEN continues to cooperate on TIP investigations with the anti-smuggling unit of the Ecuadorian police, with Interpol and with prosecutors. See below for staffing increases in the national Victim and Witness Protection Unit. In August, President Palacio declared TIP a national political priority and issued an Executive Decree establishing a national plan that will coordinate the GOE's anti-TIP strategy among all government agencies and require them to adjust their budgets to reflect anti-TIP activities. In September, government agencies completed an operational plan to implement the national plan. ¶3. Progress Ecuador has made in continuing to work with civil society to train officials, raise public awareness, and improve protection for victims: The GOE continues to train prosecutors, judges and investigators on TIP. In addition to training sessions mentioned in Refs B and C, on October 30-November 1, 35 more judges, prosecutors, and psychologists were trained. The Ecuadorian MFA conducted a two day media training session on TIP for TV, radio and print journalists on October 12-13. President Palacio, Attorney General Cecilia Armas and Minister of Government Antonio Andretta met on November 7 with visiting President of the American Bar Association to discuss additional law enforcement training. The National Institute for Children and Families ("INNFA"), led by Ecuador's First Lady, launched a year-long public awareness campaign in May, spending over $1 million to broadcast anti-TIP messages targeting vulnerable groups and the public (Ref B). The campaign is promoting the #101 hotline as a clearinghouse for tips from the public on trafficking cases. The hotline will also provide referrals for shelters and other TIP-related assistance to victims. The Ministry of Tourism is spending $60,000 on an anti-sexual tourism awareness campaign. In another public awareness initiative, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized and is promoting the screening of anti-TIP themed film "Lilya-4-Ever" on November 22 in Quito. In August the Ecuadorian Public Ministry established a 36-member police unit for Victim and Witness Protection (Ref B). Since January the program has helped 43 TIP victims by providing shelter, legal assistance, medical assistance, vocational training and secondary education. According to prosecutors, the additional police protection and victim assistance has been effective in encouraging witnesses to come forward and provide their testimony without fear of reprisal. ¶4. Progress the Government of Ecuador has made in implementing the new anti-trafficking legislation through investigation and prosecutions of trafficking crimes and convictions of trafficking offenders: Since the submission of Post's TIP report in March, at least 75 TIP arrests have been made and are in some stage of investigation/prosecution. Last month, the GOE won its first TIP conviction and sentencing (12 years prison time for the defendant in El Oro province) under the new anti-TIP criminal law (Ref C). Two other major cases have been recently called to trial in Pichincha (Ref C) and two others have been called to trial in El Oro province. Reflecting the increasing sophistication of anti-TIP operations, on November 8, DINAPEN officers in Guayas and El Oro provinces arrested a ringleader of a network of forced prostitution and rescued six under-aged Peruvian prostitutes. The Ecuadorian Congress has passed and President Palacio signed in September 2006 new legislation that closed a major loophole in TIP prosecutions. After the original TIP law passed in June, 2005, replacing Ecuador's archaic anti-TIP statutes, some judges were dismissing cases charged under the old law on the grounds that the old law no longer existed. The clarifying legislation passed in September allows judges to treat violations of the old statues under the 2005 law. JEWELL