(CNN Spanish) — Danilo Carrera, brother-in-law of Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso, condemned his brief detention on Tuesday night at the Guayaquil airport for the “Encuentro Case.” Through a statement he described the actions of the authorities as “outrage”.
“I am 84 years old. I have been a sports manager and an honest businessman for over six decades. I do not have nor have I had debts with justice. I am not prosecuted in any trial, much less are there measures against me such as a ban on leaving the country, which can only be ordered by judges,” Carrera said in a statement sent to the media.
According to Carrera, on Tuesday night he was getting ready to travel from Guayaquil to Brazil. He pointed out that as president of the Ecuadorian Tennis Federation he was invited to a Congress in Florianópolis and that he was scheduled to return on April 22.
“At the airport I was approached by police officers who told me that I had to give a version to the Prosecutor’s Office in a previous investigation that they had open, despite the fact that I had already done so the two previous times that I had been summoned,” Lasso’s brother-in-law pointed out. .
Carrera indicated that when the hearing was set up, his lawyer told him that he should not render any version since he had not been previously summoned and because he had not been explained what specific fact required expanding his version.
Guillermo Lasso photographed on April 5, 2023 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. (Credit: GERARDO MENOSCAL/AFP via Getty Images)
Finally, Lasso’s brother-in-law indicated in the statement that he was stripped of his passport despite the fact that there is no judicial measure against him. The businessman considered that it was “a completely illegal action” and added that it was an abuse that “cannot go unnoticed or go unpunished.”
CNN consulted the Prosecutor’s Office about the seizure of the passport mentioned by Carrera and is awaiting a response.
However, the Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata, responded to CNN that once Carrera gave his version, he withdrew with his family and that he had no impediment to leave the country.
The Ecuadorian Attorney General’s Office reported this Wednesday on Twitter that it had requested the retention of Carrera upon learning that he wanted to leave the country.
The judicial institution also reported that the president’s brother-in-law would testify about the “Encuentro Case”, in which the existence of an alleged criminal structure for the granting of public positions and contracts in exchange for money in state companies is being investigated.
President Lasso has rejected the existence of a structure or network of corruption in his Government. However, he asked the Prosecutor’s Office in March to investigate his brother-in-law Danilo Carrera for his business and personal relationship with Rubén Cherres, linked to the “Encuentro Case”, arguing that the president “does not overlap anyone.”
Cherres, a fugitive from justice in this case, was found dead with signs of violence along with three other people on March 31 in a house in Punta Blanca, Santa Elena province.
Carrera’s defense, in a letter sent to the media on January 9, denied that he is considered the leader of a corruption structure in public companies and denied having taken steps to obtain illegitimate benefits for himself or for third parties.
