January 16, 2023, 9:55 AM
January 16, 2023, 9:55 AM
The President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, ordered his Government to deliver the information requested by the Prosecutor’s Office in the investigation of a case of alleged corruption that splashes a brother-in-law of the president, as reported this Sunday.
The president expressed in a letter addressed to Attorney General Diana Salazar that “I have ordered that the Executive offices that are required by the State Attorney’s Office deliver all the information that is necessary” to clarify a alleged corruption plot which also involves officials of your Administration.
Lasso, who is on a tour of Europe, pointed out that “I have learned” that the Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation following the recent complaint from an electronic portal about “alleged irregularities in appointments and/or contracts in companies in the electricity sector, by the Executive” . A brother-in-law of the president, who is not part of the government, would be involved in the case.
The president indicated that ordered the delivery of information “Not only because it is a legal obligation, but also because I am completely sure that the independent work of the Prosecutor’s Office will end up confirming that there has not been, in my Government, any ‘criminal structure’ like the one that has been falsely denounced”.
In the letter released by the presidential headquarters, Lasso, a former right-wing banker, noted that he also ordered an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Secretariat (Ministry). The Executive said on January 10 that “it does not tolerate nor will it tolerate any form of corruption. From absolutely no one.”
The former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) is sentenced to eight years in prison for asking for bribes to businessmen in exchange for contracts with the State. Correa, who was prosecuted in absentia for this crime that is imprescriptible in Ecuador, has lived in Belgium – where his wife is from – since he left power.
