Four days after 53-year-old Father Enrique Fabián Arcos disappeared in Ecuador, authorities found his body on November 3 in a garbage dump about 18 miles north of Ambato, where he lived.

The murder was preceded by a robbery at Arcos’ home. Closed-circuit TV footage from the area showed that the priest was accompanied by three other men that day. Police confirmed on 5 November that they had positively identified the perpetrators.

According to local media reports, the perpetrators entered the priest’s house without forcing the doors. They tied up his 93-year-old mother, Rebeca Sevilla, and took some of her belongings, including jewelry.

Police said they then tried to get money from the priest’s bank accounts, but when they failed, they decided to kill Arcos and left the house with him. Her mother managed to free herself and soon called for help.

Arcos’ body was found in a disturbing state, partially eaten by dogs and rodents; This required additional forensic studies and led authorities to send him to Quito, Ecuador’s capital. His car was found burned in a different place.

One of the key elements in the police investigation was that one of the men seen with the priest that day was a stranger Arcos allegedly knew.

According to Father Fabricio Dávila, spokesman for the Diocese of Ambato, “foreign” is used as a euphemism for Venezuelans in Ecuador, given the Andean country’s large immigrant and refugee community of people who have left Venezuela in the past few years.

“Many times our Venezuelan brothers live in very difficult conditions and are already facing terrible xenophobia,” he told OSV News.

Arcos worked regularly in the San Roque neighborhood of Huachi Chico, where large numbers of Venezuelans receive aid, especially food kits. He probably met one of the perpetrators there.

“Years ago, Father Arcos suffered a neurological condition and had problems walking and moving his right arm. So he was not a priest (in charge of a church). But he devoted himself to the community and Indigenous people in San Roque.” said Dávila. He said Arcos spoke Kichwa, an indigenous Quechuan language in Ecuador, and therefore had great affinity for the indigenous groups he was helping.

Dávila said Arcos was always seen as “a man of faith who was extremely virtuous, very loving of people, and very cheerful.”

“He went through a period of great austerity. He was also extremely generous,” he described.

Dávila said the priests’ mother and witness to his kidnapping was a well-known Catholic leader in the community. He and the local bishop were the ones who broke the news of his son’s death, which he received “with deep sadness and distress.”

“We just hope that investigators reveal all the facts and discover what happened. And we hope that the perpetrators are prosecuted according to Ecuadorian law,” Dávila said.

According to him, Arcos died due to the unfair exploitation of his “finest virtue”: generosity.

“His kindness and solidarity gave these people confidence,” he concluded.

Ecuador has faced an unprecedented crisis of violence with drug cartels and armed gangs in recent years, with the South American country’s murder rate reaching 47.2 murders per 100,000 people in 2023.