The Council of the Judiciary suppresses the anti-corruption courts of Quito

The Plenary of the Council of the Judiciary suppressed the specialized judicial dependencies for the adjudication of corruption and organized crime offenses based in the Metropolitan District of Quito and redistributed their criminal competencies among the parishes of Iñaquito and La Mariscal and the Provincial Court of Justice of Pichincha. The measure was adopted unanimously in Extraordinary Session No. 131-2026, held on September 7, 2026, and was recorded in Resolution 187-2026, published in the Third Supplement No. 365 of the Official Registry on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.

The decision responds to a technical report from the National Directorate of Procedural Management, which verified through SATJE system data that the units fighting corruption and organized crime presented a low procedural workload. The Plenary considered the suppression and modification of competencies legally viable based on Article 264, numeral 8, of the Organic Code of the Judicial Function, which empowers the creation, modification, or suppression of courts following a technical report.

Suppressed dependencies

Three specialized bodies based in Quito are eliminated:

• The Specialized Judicial Unit of Criminal Guarantees for the adjudication of corruption and organized crime offenses.
• The Specialized Criminal Guarantees Tribunal for the adjudication of those offenses.
• The Specialized Criminal Chamber for the adjudication of corruption and organized crime offenses of the Provincial Court of Justice of Pichincha.

The resolution expressly repeals Resolution 190-2021 and Resolution 061-2022, which had created these specialized courts.

Redistribution of competencies

Competencies are transferred to ordinary criminal dependencies, which expand their designation and their jurisdiction nationwide for these offenses:

• In the first instance, up to the evaluation and preparatory stage of the trial, cases are transferred to the Judicial Unit of Criminal Guarantees of the Iñaquito parish.
• Flagrant offenses and the formulation of charges are handled by the Judicial Unit of Criminal Guarantees with jurisdiction over Flagrant Offenses of the Mariscal Sucre parish (La Mariscal).
• The adjudication stage corresponds to the Criminal Guarantees Tribunal of Iñaquito.
• The second instance and cases of privileged jurisdiction (fuero) are assigned to the Specialized Chamber of Criminal, Military Criminal, Police Criminal, and Traffic Law of the Provincial Court of Justice of Pichincha.

These courts retain their ordinary competencies and additionally assume matters of asset forfeiture (extinción de dominio) and financial crimes provided for in the Organic Law for the Prevention, Detection, and Combat of the Crime of Money Laundering.

Impact on criminal prosecution

The Council maintains that the integration of competencies strengthens the criminal justice system by increasing the number of judges available for complex cases, from more than 35 to more than 50 active judges. Cases with hearings already established or pending sentencing will remain under the charge of the same judges until their conclusion, and the School of the Judicial Function will provide specialized training within a period of three months. The resolution entered into force upon its approval on September 7, 2026.

The measure reorganizes the prosecution of high-impact crimes such as embezzlement, bribery, extortion, illicit enrichment, influence peddling, and fronting (testaferrismo), as well as those linked to organized crime, the catalog of which appears in Annex 1 of the regulation. For readers, the change implies that these cases will be processed in general criminal courts in Quito, with national jurisdiction, instead of specialized bodies, which redefines the judicial architecture in the face of corruption.

Source: Official Registry of Ecuador, Third Supplement No. 365, September 9, 2026, pp. 2-12 (official reference: Resolution 187-2026 of the Council of the Judiciary).