Motivación de la prohibición de salida del país en procesos de alimentos: Estudio sobre las resoluciones judiciales en Cuenca, 2025

Abstract

The present research studied the justification of the prohibition of leaving the country in child support proceedings, based on the analysis of judicial resolutions issued by the Judicial Unit for Family, Women, Children, and Adolescents of the canton of Cuenca during the period January–September 2025. The study was based on the premise that this measure, although aimed at guaranteeing compliance with child support obligations and the protection of the best interests of the child or adolescent, directly restricted the freedom of movement of the support obligor; therefore, it could not be ordered, denied, or omitted through generic formulas or decisions lacking justification. The research adopted a mixed approach with a predominance of quantitative methods and a descriptive-analytical scope. Through systematic documentary review, variable coding, and legal-empirical triangulation, a main unit of 73 court orders was examined, complemented by 22 subsequent decisions in child support liquidation proceedings. The results demonstrated marked judicial heterogeneity: only 28.8% of the court orders contained sufficient reasoning, while 71.2% presented deficiencies in reasoning, distributed between absence of justification and inconsistency with the law. These findings confirmed that the problem did not lie in the existence of the prohibition on leaving the country as a mechanism of child support coercion, but in its judicial application without reinforced, individualized, and proportional justification. It was concluded that the requirement of justification constituted an indispensable guarantee to avoid arbitrary restrictions on rights and to ensure decisions compatible with due process, effective judicial protection, and legal certainty.