Kidnapping of Zulema Constante

In early 2013, Zulema Constante told her parents she was in a romantic relationship with another woman, referred to as Titi. Her family rejected her disclosure and reportedly threatened both her and her partner. A cell phone recording captured Constante's mother stating that "sick people need to be restrained to heal" and warning that if she sent Zulema away, "no one will find you even under the stones."

In mid-May 2013, Zulema's father asked her to take a break from her job at the Ministry of Agriculture in Guayaquil to have lunch with him. When she arrived, four other people were waiting with her father alongside two vehicles. They forced her into one of the cars and handcuffed her. Her parents then had her interned against her will at a de-addiction center called La Esperanza, located in Tena, Napo province, in what was described as an attempt at conversion therapy. Titi, who last heard from Zulema on 17 May 2013, reported her disappearance to police, but the complaint was reportedly not taken seriously. As the case spread on social media, the family removed her from the center; Constante later told her lawyer that staff, frightened by the attention, paid her father and had him take her home.

Lawyer Silvia Buendía took on the case. Constante publicly disputed her parents' version of events and characterized the incident as a hate crime intended to "dehomosexualize" her. According to Buendía, the public prosecutor's office initially refused to open a case, allegedly telling her the matter was not a crime and that the parents were entitled to respond to their daughter's behavior. The office only took up the case after it was escalated to the Ombudsman's Office in Guayaquil. The case received wide media coverage, and the existence of such facilities was publicly condemned, including by musician Ricky Martin.

The prosecutor's office subsequently investigated. Prosecutor Mario Cadena stated that the vehicle used to transport Zulema was stopped by Traffic Police before leaving Guayaquil, but that her father contacted someone with influence and the vehicle was released despite Zulema reportedly screaming and kicking. Cadena said the contract signed by Constante's parents did not use the term "dehomosexualization" because the facility was officially registered as an addiction treatment center. Further investigation found the clinic was operated by the National Inter-Agency Commission under the supervision of a Ministry of Health official, which owned the facility.

On 16 July 2013, officials from the center who assaulted Zulema were placed in pretrial detention. The trial began on 18 July 2013. On 24 February 2014, three of the accused were found responsible for a hate crime and sentenced to ten days' imprisonment at the Archidona Social Rehabilitation Center, along with a fine of six US dollars.