Ecuador’s indigenous leader jailed amid land dispute
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In Ecuador, Julián Cruz, a leader of the Ancestral Chojón commune in Puná, Guayaquil, was detained on July 20, 2026, following accusations of theft. The arrest occurred during a long-running land dispute between the commune and the shrimp farming company Naturisa SA, which accused him to authorities.
The community received official title to its ancestral lands in 2012, but a court later ruled that the Ministry of Agriculture had granted portions of that land to aquaculture companies.
The conflict began in 1996 when shrimp farms were established in the area, with companies clearing land and damaging the environment. The community protested, but their concerns went unaddressed. In 2009, the farms occupied around 100 hectares. A 2016 study showed Puná lost over 5,600 hectares of mangrove forest while shrimp farms expanded by more than 7,000 hectares. Cruz is currently held in the Litoral Penitentiary, a prison plagued by overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and gang violence.
His defense argues he wasn’t involved in the alleged theft and wasn’t even on the island at the time. While Naturisa initially signed an agreement in 2025 to address past errors in land allocation and drop the charges against Cruz, the company later pursued the theft accusation. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 25.
