Judge shot dead while heading to gym without her bodyguards

An Ecuadoran judge was fatally shot during a state of emergency that had been declared to combat organized crime, Ecuador's judicial oversight body said. It called the killing of Lady Pachar a "serious attack against justice and the rule of law in Ecuador" in a statement released Monday. Pachar was shot that day while traveling by car to a gym in the southwestern city of Machala. Her two bodyguards were not with her when the incident took place, according to police in Machala, which is the capital of El Oro province bordering Peru. A police source told AFP on Tuesday that the judge had received threats and was killed in retaliation for the release of gang members. Ecuadorian police officers work at the crime scene of the judge Lady Pachar's murder in Machala, Ecuador, on May 11, 2026. Luis Suárez /AFP via "The judiciary cannot carry out its work under intimidation or violence," Ecuador's Judicial Council said in a statement . At least 16 judges or prosecutors have been killed in Ecuador since 2022, according to Human Rights Watch. Last October, a gunman on a motorbike killed a judge in Ecuador while he was walking his children to school . The Ecuadoran Judges' Association condemned Pachar's murder on Tuesday, writing on social media: "Without independent judges, there is no justice." Around 70 percent of the drugs produced by Colombia and Peru, the world's largest and second-largest cocaine producers, respectively, are shipped through Ecuador. …