"On March 26, 2018, a team of El Comercio newspaper was captured in the border area between Ecuador and Colombia by the Colombian armed group Oliver Sinisterra Front. Days later, in April, the murder of Javier Ortega (journalist), Paúl Rivas (photographer) and Efraín Segarra (driver) was confirmed, after failed negotiations between captors and Ecuadorian authorities.
In those days, then-president, Lenín Moreno, held meetings with the Public Security Council of Ecuador (Cosepe, by its Spanish acronym), composed of those in highest positions of the State, to determine the roadmap to release the three men. The content of these meetings was detailed in three memos, with audios, reports and quotes of the stance and actions of each member of the Cosepe while facing the kidnapping and subsequent murders.
The three memos of March 28, April 13 and April 17, 2018 fell into the 'private' category, meaning that for five years their contents could not be disclosed. When the five years expired, relatives of Javier, Paúl and Efraín requested the information be declassified. However, the current government again shielded access to the memos, switching the category to 'secret' information.
[...]
'It's regrettable how they are putting the padlocks and [the road of] impunity is being paved,' said Ricardo Rivas, brother of Paúl Rivas, in an interview this Wednesday [July 12] with Radio Pichincha. 'Denial, cover-up and silence is a constant of a State that fails in matters of human rights violations,' he added."
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