A female judge in Ecuador was shot and killed while driving to a gym in Machala on May 11, 2026, marking the latest in a relentless campaign of violence against the country’s judiciary as drug cartels wage war against the state. This small Andean nation has become one of the deadliest places in Latin America.
Lady Gissela Pachar Huanga served as a judge in the criminal judicial unit and was killed while traveling through the capital of El Oro province, a southwestern region that shares a border with Peru. A police source told AFP (Agence France-Presse) on Tuesday that the judge had been threatened and was murdered in retaliation for the release of gang members. Her two assigned bodyguards were not with her when the attack occurred, local police confirmed.
Sixteen Killed Since 2022
Since 2022, at least 16 judges or prosecutors have been killed in Ecuador, according to Human Rights Watch. The murder of Pachar adds to a grim tally that includes an October attack in which a gunman on a motorbike shot down a judge as he walked his children to school.
Ecuador’s strategic position in the drug trade drives much of this violence. Around 70 percent of the cocaine produced by Colombia and Peru — the world’s largest and second-largest producers — is shipped through Ecuador’s ports and Pacific coastline. Trafficking organizations have turned the country’s courts, prisons, and prosecutors’ offices into battlegrounds, using corruption and terror to keep their supply chains intact.
The attack on Pachar occurred during a state of emergency declared specifically to combat organized crime, a detail that has amplified criticism of government efforts to stem the bloodshed.
A Protective Detail That Wasn’t There
The Council of the Judiciary confirmed that protective measures had been assigned to Judge Pachar, but acknowledged a critical failure on the day she died.
“It should be noted that the judge had previously been assigned protective measures; however, these measures were not in place at the time of the attack,” the council said in a translated statement.
The gap between assigned protection and actual security on the ground reflects a problem that prosecutors and judges across Ecuador have raised for years. By the time her car reached its destination, the judge was dead, and the gunmen were gone.
The Ecuadorian Judges’ Association condemned the murder on Tuesday, writing on social media: “Without independent judges, there is no justice.”
Ecuador’s Judicial Council condemned the attack as a “serious attack against justice and the rule of law in Ecuador” and demanded a full investigation.
Noboa’s Hard-Line Bet
President Daniel Noboa, one of President Trump’s staunchest allies on the continent, has staked his presidency on confronting the cartels since taking power in November 2023. He has deployed soldiers on the streets and inside prisons, launched dramatic raids on drug strongholds, and declared frequent states of emergency. Human rights groups have fiercely criticized the tactics, warning of abuses by security forces operating with expanded powers.
Despite the crackdown, homicides have climbed, reaching a record 9,216 violent deaths last year. The state of emergency under which Pachar was killed was supposed to suppress exactly the kind of contract-style assassination that ended her life.
American Commandos on the Ground
Washington has grown more deeply involved in Ecuador’s security crisis as violence continues to escalate. In early March, the United States and Ecuador launched joint military operations against organizations designated as terrorist groups. American commandos recently joined Ecuadorian troops in Operation Lanza Marina, a mission targeting a compound believed to serve as a staging ground for high-speed boats linked to Los Choneros, one of the country’s most violent gangs.
Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation publicly, said American forces worked in advisory roles, accompanying their Ecuadorian counterparts as they moved against the site. The mission is part of a broader effort to disrupt maritime trafficking routes that have made Ecuador’s coast a launchpad for cocaine bound north.
Whether that escalation can protect figures like Pachar is another question. The judge’s killers chose a moment when she was alone, unguarded, and predictable in her routine — the kind of intelligence the cartels gather with ease in a country where corruption inside institutions remains widespread.
The Judicial Council’s statement made clear what is at stake beyond a single life. The judiciary, it warned, cannot function under intimidation or violence, and protecting its officers is fundamental to guaranteeing access to justice and the democratic order. In Machala on Monday, the gunmen offered their own response to that argument.