Bangladesh, Dec. 10 -- Human Rights Watchs latest findings on Ecuador paint a troubling picture of a government increasingly willing to wield financial controls as political weapons. The freezing of bank accounts belonging to Indigenous and environmental groups-implemented without prior judicial oversight and based on intelligence reports that judges later ruled lacked evidence-marks a dangerous escalation in President Daniel Noboas confrontation with civil society. What the administration presents as a technocratic enforcement of anti–money laundering laws is, in practice, a sweeping measure that has paralyzed frontline defenders of land, forests, and Indigenous rights.

The controversy erupted in the middle of mounting public unre...