Hate crime in Ecuador: Javier Viteri was murdered during curfew

This comic tells the story of Javier Viteri, who was murdered with extreme violence during the COVID-19 lockdown in May 2020, and analyzes the relationship of hegemonic masculinity in the military institution as one of the hypotheses that were not taken into account during the trial.

August 30, 2021

María Elissa Torres, Pedro Gutiérrez Guevara, Daniela Idrovo, Claudia Ramón

In May 2020, when Ecuador was under a strict curfew due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a murder occurred in the city of Arenillas that, due to its brutality, made headlines across the country. The violent death of Javier Viteri was reported in several crime news outlets, which focused on the 89 stab wounds he suffered, the involvement of a military conscript, and a possible robbery. However, LGBTQ+ organizations, human rights groups, and digital media outlets working with a gender perspective highlighted the fact that Javier was gay and that the case was a hate crime, requiring consideration of the broader context of violence experienced by LGBTQ+ people in the country.

This report was created collaboratively in the Powerful Stories Lab by Chicas Poderosas, with support from the Open Society Foundations. You can download it here .

Isabel González Ramírez supported and edited this project. Alina Manrique performed the fact-checking.

The Chicas Poderosas team supported this process with training, financial and editorial support.

Discover all the stories created in the Powerful Stories Lab held in Ecuador by visiting chicaspoderosas.org/historiasecuador

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