During the 1980’s and 1990’s in Ecuador, gay, travesti and transexual people suffered extreme persecution and violent repression at the hands of the police, including extortion, arbitrary and indefinite detention, torture and extrajudicial execution.
When Ecuador decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, the police repression reduced slightly while neo-Nazi groups[1] began ‘social cleansing’ practices against this population in the late 1990’s and 2000’s including ongoing harassment, death threats, and assassinations. As there were no accessible state entities to report a grievance, these human rights violations were never investigated or sanctioned.
In 2007, President Rafael Correa mandated the Ecuadorian Truth Commission to investigate human right violations during the period of 1984-2008, with a specific focus on the administration of León Febres Cordero 1984-1988. [2] Issues related to homophobia and transphobia were inserted in the final report of the Ecuadorian Truth Commission as contextual elements because the Commissioners contracted a gender consultant.
