Eleven Ecuadorean soldiers have been sentenced to 34 years in prison each after being found guilty of the forced disappearance of four boys last year. The discovery of the beaten and burned remains of the four boys, aged between 11 and 15, shocked the violence-wracked nation. The court found a military patrol had picked up the boys as they returned from playing football in the city of Guayaquil, forced them to strip off their clothes, beat them, and left them naked in a desolate, dangerous and abandoned location. One of the boys called his father but, by the time he arrived, they were no longer there. Their burned bodies were found days later close to a military base near Guayaquil. In total, 17 soldiers were on trial over the disappearance of 15-year-old Nehemías Arboleda, 11-year-old Steven Medina, and brothers Ismael, 15, and Josué Arroyo, 14. Eleven soldiers received sentences of 34 years and eight months, while five were given reduced sentences of two and a half years for cooperating with the prosecution. A lieutenant-colonel who had not been on patrol was declared not guilty. The soldiers had been dispatched as part of a government crackdown on criminal gangs, which have been expanding in power leading to a surge in crime. Initially, defense officials claimed the boys were suspects in a robbery, but the judge ruled that they were innocent victims of a state crime, ordering an official apology to their families and a plaque to commemorate their memory. The prosecution highlighted the inhumane treatment the boys suffered, including racist insults and simulated executions before their deaths, with the judge emphasizing that the boys' abandonment in such a perilous environment led to their demise.