Ecuador — Legal Help

Dial 911 (the integrated ECU-911 system; English coverage is patchy). If arrested you have the right to a free public defender (Defensoría Pública) and an interpreter; sign nothing you cannot read and ask police to notify your embassy — most Western embassies are in Quito, and the US also runs a consulate general in Guayaquil. Sex work itself is legal for adults 18+ and health-regulated; the 2014 Código Orgánico Integral Penal (COIP) criminalises pimping, brothel exploitation and any commercial sex involving under-18s as trafficking, with long sentences. The general age of consent is 14, but the only number that matters commercially is 18 — verify age and walk away from anything ambiguous. Drug offences bring pretrial detention measured in months.