Overview

• The Constitutional Court provisionally suspended 17 articles across three recently passed security laws—including intelligence surveillance powers and early pardon provisions—for procedural review with hearings set for next week.
• President Daniel Noboa led a large demonstration to the court in Quito, accusing magistrates of abandoning police and military and unveiling banners with judges’ faces blaming them for “robbing peace.”
• The court denounced the militarization of its headquarters and the public stigmatization of its judges, affirming its autonomy and the right to peaceful protest under the constitution.
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador warned that government actions threaten judicial independence and urged protection of the court and its staff.
• The executive has proposed a popular consultation that would include a question to subject constitutional judges to political trial, raising alarms over further erosion of institutional checks and balances.