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QUITO – Former President Rafael Correa of Ecuador (2007-2017) had his eight-year sentence for bribery confirmed by the country’s Supreme Court of Justice on Monday. Thus, Correa will not be able to run for vice presidency in the next elections, scheduled for February 2021, which he had been running.
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Correa, who would be running mate of the young economist Andrés Arauz for a left-wing coalition, had already had his candidacy suspended last Wednesday by the National Electoral Council. The measure, however, did not exclude the former president from the elections, which happened now with the confirmation of his sentence by the court.
The court “by majority vote, rejected the appeals presented by the appellants and ratified the sentence for bribery,” the prosecution published on its Twitter account.
In the same network, Correa commented on the decision:
“They finally succeeded. In record time, they give me a ‘final’ sentence to disqualify me as a candidate. They do not understand that the only thing they do is increase popular support. I will be fine. Give all solidarity to the persecuted. Remember: the only thing that they condemn us is to win, “wrote the former president.
Monday’s trial also upheld the sentences of 15 other people, including that of former Vice President Jorge Glas, who served in part of the Correa government.
However, according to the constitutionalists heard by the Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio, the effect of the sentence on Correa’s political career is not only related to the eight-year sentence, but also to life. You will not be able to participate in more elections in the country, according to paragraph 2 of article 113 of the Constitution of Ecuador.
– That means they [Correa e os outros condenados] They can no longer be candidates for popular elections, have a contract with the State or be a civil servant. This is part of the constitutional reform made at the end of 2018 – said Jorge Benavides, one of the constitutionalists heard by El Comercio.
The case judged by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation on Monday is known as Bribes 2012-2016, and was originally called Green Rice, which was the name of an Excel file with records of various transfers to Alianza País – Correa’s former party – made by multinational companies, including Odebrecht.
The scheme began to be revealed with the publication of a report on the Mil Folhas website, in May 2019. The main parties involved in the negotiations would be former Vice President Glas, Walter Solís Valarezo – former head of the Ministry of Water (Senagua) – former Minister María de los Ángeles Duarte and former presidential advisers.
According to the Public Ministry, high officials of the Rafael Correa government formed, between 2012 and 2016, a network of irregular campaign contributions to the Alianza País party.
This network raised more than US $ 7 million through an exchange of favors between government officials and contractors. With illegal financing, entrepreneurs were allowed to carry out large projects. The prosecution estimated the damage to the country at $ 21 million.
The former president, for his part, was linked to the case by depositing $ 6,000 in his bank account, an amount that, according to him, was a loan from his party fund at that time.
– I never allowed bribes. It is a political persecution, they are destroying families for persecuting me. To try to accuse me, they made up names: green rice, bribes and notebooks with notes from a trip from Quito to Guayaquil … These files have been manipulated since 2018 – Correa said during the last hearing of the case on Friday.
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In exile in Belgium since 2017, Correa faces other lawsuits in Ecuador with arrest warrants. In the case of Monday’s trial, the Ecuadorian Justice had already confirmed, in July, his conviction, which took away his political rights, which was confirmed in this process, tried in his absence. Correa had recently appealed the sentence.
The former agent faces another arrest warrant to be tried for the kidnapping of an Ecuadorian opponent in Colombia in 2012, a crime for which he cannot be tried in his absence.
Correa, 57, claims his innocence for being politically persecuted by the government of Lenín Moreno, who was his vice president in 2007-2013, but with whom he broke up.
Moreno, whose four-year term ends in May 2021, has enacted legal reforms to ban re-election more than once, which, for Correa’s critics, would make his candidacy impossible even for other positions.
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