Two Ecuadorian journalists who were forced to flee the country have been honored by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Elvira del Pilar Nole and Juan Carlos Tito were recognized for their work as part of the CPJ’s annual International Press Freedom Awards.
The couple — the hosts of the Radio Selva station since 2001 — were once based in the small highland town of Baeza.
However, they were forced to flee the country as a result of their investigations into drug gangs, and now reside in Canada.
The CPJ said: “The couple’s experience highlights the immense challenges facing journalists in Ecuador, where authorities and criminal groups are increasingly targeting reporters.”
Pilar and Tito spoke to Latin America Reports about the events which led to their family — including their two daughters — leaving the place they once called home.
In recent years, the journalists began to receive information about organized crime and drug trafficking in their local area.
They started speaking to parents of young people with addiction issues, learnt of the spots where drug traffickers congregated, unearthed storage warehouses used by drug traffickers, and began to suspect that the local authorities might be complicit in criminal networks.
By the end of July 2023, Pilar and Tito had compiled evidence into a folder, and were advised to deliver it to an authority figure who was believed to be trustworthy.
The authority figure threw the folder away, in front of the couple.
Just a few days later, on August 2, 2023, Tito and his daughters were assaulted while traveling by car.
A group of people broke their car window, stole their electronic devices, threatened the family with firearms, and beat Tito in front of his daughters.
“It was a very, very difficult moment,” Tito recalled.
The aggressions did not stop there, however.
Just over a month later, the couple’s two daughters — aged seven and 13 — were at home alone when an individual tried to force their way into the home.
Three weeks later, a truck passed Pilar and Tito by, and photographed them.
Another 11 days later, the couple were threatened by an individual on a motorcycle wielding a gun
“That’s when we started to understand that all of this was connected,” Tito explained.
It was not long until the family was warned by an individual known to them that they should leave Baeza within 24 hours for their own safety.
With no knowledge that their departure from Baeza would be a permanent one, Pilar and Tito decided to tell their daughters that they were all simply going on a short trip.
“We told them to grab some clothes, two or three changes of clothes.
“That’s when your heart breaks, because deep down you know that you don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know if they’re waiting for you around the corner; you don’t know when you’re going to return,” Tito recalled.
The food the family had prepared to eat that day was left on the table.
They left their pet dogs and cat behind as they fled in a borrowed car.
An NGO relocated the family to another province in Ecuador, but fears arose their location had been leaked by November, when groups of motorcyclists began circling the building they were living in.
On December 28, 2023, the family relocated to a Colombian city which borders Ecuador.
There, Pilar and Tito began streaming their radio show again. This time, they were hosting it from a hotel lobby, and attracted a lot of attention doing so.
Tito said: “People were watching you, listening to you, curious about what you were doing, where you were broadcasting to.”
In January 2024, gang violence in Ecuador erupted.
Perhaps one of the most shocking scenes was journalist José Luis Calderón being taken hostage by gang members, live on TV, with a gun pointed at his neck.
Ecuador’s President — Daniel Noboa — subsequently declared an “internal armed conflict” in the country, and ordered security forces to “neutralize” gangs.
What followed were vast numbers of Ecuadorians, Venezuelans, and Colombians fleeing from Ecuador to bordering Colombian cities, such as the one where Pilar and Tito’s family were residing.
They were advised to relocate once again, for the sake of their safety, to a different city in Colombia, where they arrived on January 18 2024.
The family were shortly afterwards presented with the possibility of resettlement in Canada, which they decided to pursue, however Tito became unwell before the move and required surgery in Colombia.
Once he had recovered from his illness, the family arrived in Canada on 13 September 2024.
“It all happened so suddenly. When we left our home on October 20, 2023, we thought it would be a week, a month,” Tito said.
Upon arriving in Canada, the youngest daughter had been anxious to leave the house, afraid that doing so might be dangerous.
However, the family have found that Canadians have been “very friendly” towards them, with the two daughters able to create a new circle of friends.
“Here we have been able to regain peace, to see our daughters walk safely to their schools again, to go out again,” Tito said.
Once they had arrived in Canada, the CPJ assisted the family with funds for food, rent, and for replacement equipment.
Now, Pilar and Tito continue to work together to broadcast Radio Selva from Canada, “just as [they] did in [their] main studio.”
Tito explained: “We are always working as a team.”
Being recognized by the CPJ has brought great pride to Pilar and Tito.
Tito said of the award: “It filled us with satisfaction, enormous satisfaction, because you think no-one notices what you are going through. For us, we are a speck of sand in the desert, but suddenly the recognition filled us with joy.”
While Radio Selva’s future is not entirely clear, with concerns surrounding the financial sustainability of the show and the high cost of living in Canada, the couple hope to continue broadcasting for the foreseeable future.
Featured image credit: Elvira del Pilar Nole and Juan Carlos Tito
