The Prosecutor’s Office of Ecuador called the former president Rafael Correa and 12 other former officials of his Government to give their version of the case Reconstruction of Manabíaccording to the Televistazo news program.
In total, 13 former Correa administration officials were called to testify, including Vinicio Alvarado, Ricardo Patino, Mary of the Angels Duarte y Walter Solis. Several of the officials, including the former president, are fugitives from Justice and reside outside the country.
The case also known as ‘Reconstruction’ investigates alleged embezzlement committed during the contracting of public works in the coastal province of Manabí after a devastating earthquake in 2016.
Last January, the Attorney General Diana Salazar requested preventive detention for the former vice president Jorge Glas, who was in office during the reconstruction period. The politician took refuge in the Mexican embassy in Ecuador in December 2023 when it became known that the Prosecutor’s Office had ordered his arrest.
The Prosecutor’s Office maintains that some of the projects contracted during the reconstruction process of Manabí did not comply with the axes established by the Solidarity Law and that Glas’s behavior suggests that he seeks to evade Justice. “There is an objective presumption of law that the accused (Glas) tried to evade the effective action of the law due to criminal recidivism. (…) Far from being a politically persecuted person, he is a citizen who wants to evade the action of Justice,” Salazar said.
Glas was sentenced to 8 years in prison in 2020 for the crime of aggravated passive bribery and was deprived of liberty until 2022. Prosecutor Salazar maintains that Glas’ release was planned by the deceased drug trafficker Leandro Norerowho manipulated the Judicial system through bribes according to recent judicial investigations. (I)
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