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The Office of the Ombudsman of Ecuador requested the dismissal of Juan Carlos Zeballos, Minister of Health, for his “lack of transparency” in the vaccination process. A political trial has also been filed against the official and the Prosecutor’s Office has already opened an investigation against him.
The Attorney General’s Office of Ecuador opened an investigation this Friday against the Minister of Health, Juan Carlos Zeballos, for alleged influence peddling in the distribution of vaccines against COVID-19.
According to the complaints received this week, Zeballos distributed vaccines among his relatives last weekend, even when the first phase of vaccination, or the pilot plan as it is known in the country, indicated that the first 8,000 vaccines that arrived on the 21 January were intended for medical personnel fighting on the front lines against the coronavirus pandemic and the elderly.
“Based on several complaints filed, the Prosecutor’s Office opened a prior investigation against the Minister of Health, Juan Carlos Zeballos, for an alleged crime of influence peddling in the process of distribution of vaccines for COVID-19,” said the Prosecutor’s Office in a statement.
The controversy originated as a result of publications that pointed out that relatives of the minister, residents in a private center for the elderly called the Geriatric Center of the Hospital de los Valles in Quito, were vaccinated over the weekend with doses from the Pablo Arturo Suárez hospital in the capital. Zeballos himself admitted that several of his relatives were in this room, including his mother, and that he went to visit them over the weekend. During his statements he did not deny the weighty accusations that fall on him.
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“I am very sorry and deeply sorry that my presence has been perceived in a negative way. Whether or not this was political recklessness on my part, I don’t know. I am not a politician and I don’t understand politics. Now, if anyone wishes that within this process they had left my mother or anyone out, I must tell them that I respectfully differ. If our plan is respected and we follow the path outlined with the world pharmaceutical companies, all Ecuadorians are going to get vaccinated until October of this year ”, Zeballos pointed out.
On Sunday, the Ombudsman, Freddy Carrión, announced that the provincial delegations of the entity he directs will carry out an exhaustive monitoring of the vaccination plan in the event of suspicions. Meanwhile, calls for the resignation of the minister or to initiate an impeachment process against him have been increasing. Both the Office of the Ombudsman, as well as political candidates for the February 7 elections and medical union associations and more than a hundred assembly members, have requested the removal of the minister and clarifications about his actions.
It is not the first time that this specialist in epidemiology has been criticized for his management during the pandemic. Zeballos had faced complaints after the president of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute, Jorge Wated, reported that the administrative staff of that entity had received the vaccine even though they did not belong to the group of the first vaccination phase.
The Ecuadorian Government has announced that it will invest about US $ 200 million in the acquisition of vaccines against COVID-19, which will be dispatched between September and October, to immunize some 9 million inhabitants, equivalent to 60% of the population. The vaccination plan was prepared six months ago and consists of four phases. Zero, aimed at people exposed to contagion and those with a higher risk of death; phase one, in which teachers, security officials will be vaccinated; the two for those over 18 years old; and phase three, in which the rest of the citizens will be vaccinated.
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