HomeNewsAnalysisIn Rafael Correa's Absence, Ecuador Goes After His Allies
ANALYSIS

In Rafael Correa's Absence, Ecuador Goes After His Allies

ECUADOR / 29 AUG 2019 BY JAVIER VILLALBA AND CHRIS DALBY EN

The net is tightening around former Ecuador president Rafael Correa after a new order for his arrest, underscoring the country's determination to bring the once-popular leader to justice, along with his closest political allies. 

On August 8, Judge Daniella Camacho announced a preventative detention order for Correa and requested that Interpol issue an arrest warrant, El País reported. Interpol has repeatedly rejected such requests in the past, citing a lack of evidence.

This time, Ecuador's Attorney General Diana Salazar has accused the former president of being behind a bribery scheme, which she described as a “well-structured criminal organization that received payments from government contractors,” according to a report by Ecuavisa.

The payments from the government contractors allegedly went to the presidential campaign of the Alianza PAIS political party, which led to Correa's and running mate Jorge Glas' return to power in 2013.  

Arrest warrants were also issued for a number of high-level officials in Correa's administration, including former Vice President Glas, who is already behind bars in connection to another corruption case. Former ministers Vinicio Alvarado, Walter Solís and María de los Ángeles Duarte also face charges. 

SEE ALSO: Ecuador News and Profile

Around 20 individuals close to Correa’s government are being investigated for their role in a case known as Bribes 2012-2016, El Comercio reported. 

The former president, who currently lives in Belgium, denies the accusations and calls them a political persecution campaign.

But this is not the first time that Correa has faced accusations of receiving illegal funds. His successor, President Lenín Moreno, opened an investigation in April 2018 to prove whether Correa had received campaign funding from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - FARC).

In an interview with Caracol, Moreno also alluded to a potential agreement between Correa's government and dissident FARC elements to allow drug trafficking at the Colombia-Ecuador border.

"We can presume that there could have been some sort of agreement, tacit at best ... for the transportation of drugs through a section of the border," the president said.

Finally, Correa has been linked to the sweeping Odebrecht corruption scandal. The Brazilian construction firm allegedly paid $11.3 million to Correa and Glas' 2013 election campaign. While Correa denies this, the company routinely bribed officials for construction contracts throughout the region.

InSight Crime Analysis

There is little chance that Rafael Correa will be brought to justice by this new arrest warrant or any others under current conditions. He has legal residence in Belgium through his wife, a Belgian national, and Brussels has historically proved lenient in extradition cases. Furthermore, Belgium and Ecuador do not currently have an extradition treaty.

In 2018, Judge Daniella Camacho had already called for Correa’s arrest in connection to the kidnapping of a political opponent seven years earlier in Colombia. In response, Correa declared that he felt “brutally persecuted” and explained that he was looking to request political asylum from the Belgian government.

However, this new investigation shows that the Moreno administration will not stop scrutinizing Correa's time in office. While seeing Correa in an Ecuadorean court room is unlikely, Moreno is using this to go after other powerful elites in the country. 

Yet Moreno's own administration is under scrutiny by the Attorney General's Office, which is currently pursuing at least 20 corruption investigations that involve senior political and economic figures linked to both Correa's and Moreno's governments, El Comercio reported.

SEE ALSO: Major Odebrecht Corruption Cases and Investigations in 2019

The fear of retribution has clearly spread among Correa's former allies. His minister of pubic works, Walter Solís, is a fugitive from justice after being tied to misappropriation of public funds. Correa's old tourism minister, Vinicio Alvarado, fled to Venezuela after being investigated for illegal campaign financing.  

One of the few to be convicted is Glas, who is spending six years in jail in relation to the Odebrecht scandal, as well as facing embezzlement allegations in another case. 

In an interview with Argentina's Página 12, Correa defended himself, saying "they want me dead outside the country or a prisoner inside the country...they know we will win any elections if I am there."

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ECUADOR / 9 JUN 2022

Ecuador's two leading drug gangs are talking the talk when it comes to peace, but walking the walk may be…

ECUADOR / 8 NOV 2022

Environmental crime is devastating the Amazon. What are these five Amazonian states doing to protect it?…

COLOMBIA / 22 DEC 2021

Welcome to InSight Crime’s Criminal  GameChangers 2021, where we highlight the most important trends in organized crime in the Americas over the course…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Receives Great Reception

27 MAY 2023

Several of InSight Crime’s most recent articles about Venezuela have been well received by regional media. Our article on Venezuela’s colectivos expanding beyond their political role to control access to…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report Continues

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Paraguay Election Coverage Draws Attention 

5 MAY 2023

InSight Crime looked at the various anti-organized crime policies proposed by the candidates in Paraguay’s presidential election, which was won on April 30 by Santiago Peña. Our pre-election coverage was cited…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in OAS, CARICOM Reports

28 APR 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s work was cited nine times in a new report by the Organization of American States (OAS) titled “The Impact of Organized Crime on Women,…