Milagro (Ecuador) (AFP) – Three months after her son died at the hands of Ecuador's military, Monica Franco is still inconsolable.
Issued on: 09/06/2026 - 21:16
3 min Reading time
Bryan Ledesma, a 28-year-old fisherman, was stopped by an army patrol on the evening of March 16 in violence-plagued Guayas province.His family said he was going to collect a motorcycle from a mechanic's shop in his hometown of Milagro.What followed was a savage beating that lasted for 40 minutes, according to prosecutors.'I can't take it anymore'AFP saw a video of the attack filmed from afar by terrified local residents. Two soldiers can be seen beating Bryan, while he cries: "Stop! I can't take it anymore."His friend, who managed to escape, claimed the soldiers also threw Bryan into a pool of water and applied electric shocks to his tongue with a stun gun.His body was later found in a hospital, wet and covered in dirt.The young man's death adds to a growing litany of abuses by the military, under orders to crush the organized crime gangs behind a staggering rise in violence in the once-tranquil Andean nation.This year alone, there have been 23 reported cases of extrajudicial killings by security forces. Last year, authorities received 244 complaints for excessive use of force.Monica cannot understand why, if her soccer-loving son was suspected of a crime, the soldiers "didn't take him to the police.""He was beaten to death," the 57-year-old home-maker, who wears only black as a sign of mourning, told AFP, sobbing.In 2024, right-wing President Daniel Noboa began using the military to try to quash the cartels that have turned what was once one of Latin America's safest countries into one of its deadliest.Ecuador's ports act as a gateway to global markets for 70 percent of the cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru, authorities say.As troops were deployed on the streets, reports of serious rights abuses began to pile up.
