Judge shot dead in Ecuador while heading to gym without her bodyguards
CBS News reports that Judge Lady Gissela Pachar Huanga of the Santa Rosa Criminal Judicial Unit was shot and killed on May 11 in Machala, Ecuador, while travelling by car to a gym. Her assigned bodyguards were not present at the time of the attack. According to the reporting, Pachar had received death threats since 2024 and her name appeared in October 2025 pamphlets threatening five Machala judges. Human Rights Watch is cited noting that at least 16 judges and prosecutors have been killed in Ecuador since 2022. The case is a stark illustration of how the rule of law is being undermined in the region not only by legislative capture but by lethal violence against the legal professionals charged with applying it.