The Union of Farmers and Indigenous Organizations of Cotacachi (Unorcac) challenged the judicial decision, maintaining that the hearing was held without adequate intercultural dialogue and without taking indigenous jurisdiction into account.

  According to Unorcac, the measure cannot be analyzed solely as a decision within a criminal proceeding, but rather as an action that affects the recognition of collective rights and the autonomy of indigenous peoples.

  Furthermore, the organization rejected what it termed the criminalization of leaders for their participation in social mobilizations and warned that preventive detention should not be used as a form of preemptive punishment or to delegitimize protest.

  Unorcac also expressed its opposition to any potential entry by the National Police, the Armed Forces, or other state agents into indigenous territory to enforce the measure, absent a prior process of intercultural coordination with community authorities.

  For his part, Perugachi stated that the indigenous rank-and-file had decided he should not turn himself in to the authorities following the magistrate’s ruling, and he denounced an alleged violation of his rights during the hearing.

  “We were not allowed to speak at the hearing. She only permitted two brief interventions by our lawyer, and then she wouldn’t even let the community speak,” the leader stated in comments to Radio Pichincha.

  The Fenocin president linked the accusation against him to the recall effort Fenocin is spearheading against Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, suggesting that the case might be politically motivated.

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