Juvenile detention center overcrowding in Ecuador surges to 64.8% in one year

Juvenile detention centers in Ecuador are facing a severe overcrowding crisis, with rates soaring to 64.8% in the last year. This alarming trend is drawing increased attention due to the growing recruitment of young people by criminal organizations.

Francisco Cevallos, a researcher at the Observatory of Childhood, Adolescence, and Youth, explained that this phenomenon is directly linked to organized crime's increasing reliance on minors. He noted a 35% rise in adolescent detentions in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2025. Significantly, one in four detained minors were found with a firearm or bladed weapon, a rate 2.6 times higher than among adults over 18.

"The capacity for an adolescent to obtain a weapon is only possible through an adult who provides it, and this is where the use of adolescents for the purposes of organized crime is most evident," Cevallos stated. This highlights a disturbing pattern where adults facilitate access to weapons for minors, who are then employed for criminal activities.

Some of the most overcrowded facilities include the center in Esmeraldas, near the Colombian border, which holds 126 adolescents despite a capacity for 35. Guayaquil, the country's most populous city, also faces significant overcrowding, with 209 minors in a space designed for 150. These conditions underscore the strain on the juvenile justice system as it grapples with the escalating involvement of youth in organized crime.