Ecuador's National Intelligence Center in focus after director's death

Ecuador's National Intelligence Center (CNI) has come under renewed attention following the tragic death of its director general, Michele Sensi-Contugi, and his wife in a helicopter crash in Kenya on August 19, 2026. The accident claimed the lives of all seven individuals on board, and Kenyan authorities are investigating the cause.

Following Sensi-Contugi's death, Luis Carlos Ávila Chávez has taken over as the interim director of the CNI. Ávila was already a part of the institution, having been identified as the deputy director general in official documents from April 2026.

The CNI serves as the governing body of Ecuador's National Intelligence System. Its core mission is to produce strategic intelligence, generate alerts, and provide advice to the highest levels of the state for decision-making. Key objectives include identifying risks, threats, and opportunities for the nation's comprehensive security and fostering regional and multilateral intelligence cooperation.

The agency has roots in the former Strategic Intelligence Center (CIES), established in 2018 after the dissolution of the Secretariat of Intelligence. The CIES inherited the responsibilities and resources of its predecessor. The CNI's mandate includes intelligence and counterintelligence functions, as well as coordinating the National Intelligence System. Its work focuses on gathering and analyzing information crucial for state security, producing reports for top authorities, and managing classified documents.

Since 2026, the CNI has also been involved in analyzing risks associated with specific public procurement processes. Executive Decree 328 mandates that executive branch entities provide the CNI with information on participants in certain bidding processes to enable risk assessments and alerts. In March 2026, Luis Carlos Ávila, then deputy director, convened public institutions to establish information exchange mechanisms for analyzing threats in public procurement.