‘We are shattered’: Afro-Ecuadorians mourn four boys found dead after encounter with military

People participate in a chigualo held in the neighborhood of Las Malvinas in memory of the Guayaquil Four on 8 January. Photograph: Donald Díaz/The Guardian

Ismael Arroyo, 15, dreamed of becoming a great footballer, like Brazil’s Neymar. His brother, Josué, 14, preferred the French star Kylian Mbappé. For Steven Medina, 11, playing like either Neymar or Mbappé would have been just fine. Nehemías Saúl Arboleda, 14, had a different dream: he aspired to become a singer.

The four Black boys from Ecuador’s coastal city of Guayaquil had just finished a football match one Sunday night last month when they were forced into a military patrol car by members of the Ecuadorian air force.