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DE RUEHQT #2844/01 3251530
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FM AMEMBASSY QUITO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5721
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RUEAHLC/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA PRIORITY 6203
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 2184
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ NOV 0236
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA PRIORITY 1178
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL PRIORITY 1458
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL

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