La figura del colaborador en el delito de la delincuencia organizada desde la participación penal y sus problemas de imputación

Abstract

This thesis examines the legal status of the collaborator in the offense of organized crime, introduced as an autonomous form of criminal involvement through the final paragraph of Article 369 of Ecuador’s Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (Código Orgánico Integral Penal, COIP) following the 2023 reform. The study focuses on the criminal liability issues raised by this provision and its tension with the traditional categories of perpetration and participation established in Articles 42 and 43 of the COIP. Using a qualitative, doctrinal legal research methodology, the study analyzes the theory of control over the act, the theory of objective imputation, and the theory of neutral and functional roles to determine the interpretive scope and limits of the collaborator’s criminal responsibility. The findings suggest that the broad and ambiguous wording of the provision may encourage an expansive interpretation capable of extending criminal liability to conduct that does not necessarily constitute a legally relevant contribution to the criminal organization. The research concludes that the current regulation creates potential tensions with the principles of legality, personal criminal liability, and culpability. Accordingly, a restrictive and rights-based interpretation of the collaborator provision is necessary to ensure consistency with the fundamental guarantees of criminal law and to prevent excessive expansion of criminal punishment.