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🇪🇨 Ecuador /Crime & Justice

José Serrano’s daughter asks the IACHR for urgent protection and demands his release

From El Comercio · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • Verónica Serrano asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for urgent precautionary measures for her father, José Serrano, who she says has been detained since Aug. 28, 2026.
  • She alleges that the detention is illegal and arbitrary, and that Serrano has been cut off from his family, lawyers and doctors.
  • The family filed a habeas corpus action and demanded his immediate release while he remains jailed in the case investigating Fernando Villavicencio’s assassination.

Verónica Serrano has appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for urgent protection for her father, former Ecuadorian Interior Minister José Serrano, after his deportation from the United States and detention in Ecuador’s El Encuentro prison.

In a post on X on Aug. 31, Serrano called the detention “illegal and arbitrary” and asked the commission to intervene. She also urged national and international human rights groups to establish an oversight mission to monitor the case and protect her father’s life and personal integrity.

Serrano said her father had allegedly been denied contact with his family, lawyers and doctors. She also accused authorities of subjecting him to “inhuman and degrading” treatment. The family said it found on Aug. 29 that no detention warrant existed and subsequently filed a habeas corpus action.

illegal and arbitrary

— Verónica SerranoShe used the phrase to describe her father’s detention in a public denunciation.

According to Serrano, authorities only requested that a detention warrant be issued at 10:55 a.m. on Aug. 31. She cited Article 679 of Ecuador’s Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code and called for an investigation into those allegedly involved in the detention.

The family is demanding José Serrano’s immediate release and a swift ruling on the constitutional petitions. Serrano remains imprisoned by judicial order in the Magnicidio FV case, which investigates the killing of Fernando Villavicencio.

inhuman and degrading

— Verónica SerranoShe used the phrase when alleging the treatment her father had received in detention.
About this summary

Originally published by El Comercio in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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