Security or the Rule of Law
The Questions Raised by Noboa's "Foreign Soldier Immunity" Decree

← Back to Latin America News

On July 1, Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa issued an executive decree that re-declares an internal armed conflict. Its content goes a step beyond his security policy so far: it grants immunity to foreign soldiers from cooperating countries, and gives the president the power to pardon (indulto) Ecuadorian military personnel, police officers and civilians who take part in domestic security operations. When legal scholars began to speak up, saying the discretion granted is far too broad, it was an entirely natural reaction.

What happened

In a little over two years, Ecuador has now declared the same "internal armed conflict" three times. The first declaration, in January 2024, was repeatedly renewed, and the July 1 decree is its third iteration. In parallel, a state of exception issued on June 18 (Executive Decree 423) covers ten provinces and three districts for 60 days, meaning two special legal regimes are running at the same time.

What is new in this decree is the explicit statement that foreign soldiers from cooperating countries may take part in security operations. Ecuador had already signed a border security cooperation agreement with the United States and, working with foreign partners, had raided clandestine construction sites for semi-submersible drug-smuggling vessels — the cooperation was already happening on the ground. But its basis in domestic law remained vague. This decree, in effect, supplies that legal basis after the fact.

Context: worsening violence and the normalization of the "exception"

Behind the government's rush to act lies a genuine deepening of the violence. In areas where it is concentrated, such as Manabí province, the turf war between the two largest gangs, Los Choneros and Los Lobos, has intensified. According to ACLED (the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project), June saw the highest level of gang violence against civilians since its records began in 2022.

At the same time, the Noboa government has declared security emergencies again and again since taking office in January 2024. Presidential decrees that bypass regular parliamentary deliberation have piled up, and by now the "exception" is becoming the norm. This is not a phenomenon unique to Ecuador. It is one example of a trend — the "mano dura" (iron fist) approach that began with the Bukele government in El Salvador and has spread across the region — in which the legal casing around hardline security methods keeps getting thinner.

The question: how far does the "indulto" reach?

Legal scholar Pablo Coloma points out that the decree "does not specify under what circumstances a pardon would be granted." This is not a minor flaw. If the conditions for a pardon remain vague and are left to presidential discretion, there is a risk that it will be used to grant retroactive immunity for human rights violations committed during security operations. From the standpoint of international humanitarian law, it is also unclear who would be held responsible, and in which court, if foreign soldiers were to harm civilians.

That Ecuador faces an urgent security crisis is a fact. But whether urgency can justify a legal defect is an entirely separate question. Whether foreign troops will actually take part in operations, and whether the pardons will actually be used, remains to be seen — but the fact that the legal framework was put in place first will weigh heavily.

My perspective

Ecuador is now facing the old question of the trade-off between security and the rule of law in its most pressing form. What made me stop and think about this decree was the way the words "immunity" and "pardon" are used. It is sometimes said that in any institution, the exception clauses are the real substance. However admirable the peacetime rules may be, if it is unclear when, and on whose judgment, the exception can be triggered, then what actually protects people is not the peacetime rules but the exception itself.

A pardon power with no defined conditions has an effect even if it is never used. The mere fact that people on the ground in a security operation know they "may ultimately be granted immunity" changes the standard of their behavior. The only way to prevent that is to write in the conditions for the exception, and the procedures for reviewing it, in advance. How Ecuador's legislature and courts handle this decree will also set a precedent for neighboring countries that have started down the same road.

Glossary

conflicto armado interno = internal armed conflict. This designation creates the legal basis for deploying the military in domestic security operations. indulto = pardon; the presidential power to waive a conviction or prosecution. estado de excepción = state of exception; a mechanism that allows certain constitutional rights to be temporarily restricted.

It is not that the emergency never ends. It is that the emergency becomes the new normal.

※ This article is the author’s commentary based on public information. Please confirm the latest figures, dates and procedures with governments and primary sources. Quotations are kept minimal and sources are cited.