Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa marched Tuesday in a protest against the country’s Constitutional Court judges who recently suspended several security laws.
While Noboa portrayed the rally as part of his push to take on the once-peaceful country’s drug gangs, the court said the attack threatened the safety and independence of the judges.
Wearing a bulletproof vest and surrounded by bodyguards and several ministers, Noboa walked alongside hundreds of protesters towards the court in the center of the capital Quito.
Signs lined the march showing the names and images of the judges, reading: “These are the judges that steal our peace.”
In a statement, the Constitutional Court condemned “a stigmatization that increases the security risk” of its justices, and which “directly affects the independence of the body.”
Since his election in 2023, Noboa has pursued a crackdown on drug cartels blamed for turning what was once among the region’s most peaceful countries into one of its most violent.
Last week, the Constitutional Court temporarily suspended three laws that had been pursued by the pro-government majority in the National Assembly, promising to investigate warnings that the measures could be unconstitutional.
These included an intelligence law that allows surveillance as well as arrests without a judicial warrant, while another lets presidential pardons be granted during the investigation phase, before other procedural steps.
“Our police officers, our military feel unprotected, they feel abandoned by a Constitutional Court that has decided to turn its back on them,” Noboa said while holding a megaphone.
Manuel, a 70-year-old construction worker who did not want to give his last name, told AFP he supported the president.
The judges “do what they want, they block laws that benefit us Ecuadorans,” he added.
Others turned out to protest the government.
“We’re living under a dictatorship when we view these judges like they are on a most-wanted list,” said Daniel Granja, a 30-year-old private sector employee.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk called attacks on Ecuador’s Constitutional Court “unacceptable.”
“The authorities must guarantee the Court’s independence and the safety of judges and personnel,” he said in a post on X.
