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