Guillermo Lasso, the "great godfather" of Ecuadorian corruption
Eloy Osvaldo Proaño: The banker-president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, threatened the journalistic team of the digital media outlet La Posta, after it published a series of documents and audios that link him, along with government officials and the president's brother-in-law, Danilo Career, with acts of corruption and drug trafficking.
Already in October 2021, Lasso was at the center of criticism after the journalistic investigation Pandora Papers pointed him out for having controlled 14 offshore companies, most of them based in Panama. It was not the first time that the banker's name appears in investigations into tax havens. - Newspaper Option
The president's defeat in the referendum, added to allegations of corruption around him, stirred up the political climate in Ecuador. The intelligence services of the National Police divided the situation into two parts: the first is what is known on the Internet as the "Great Godfather" case, which involves Danilo Carrera, the president's brother-in-law, and two people close to him. Carrera, Rubén Cherres and Hernán Luque, currently wanted by the Ecuadorian police.
The second takes into account the result of the recent elections on February 5, in which the ruling party was defeated in the simultaneous call for a referendum on security and political reform, among other issues.
During an intervention on a national network, Lasso described the communicators as "entertainment mercenaries" and stated that they have attacked his integrity and that of his family. As he pounded the table, he said that the journalists' "15 minutes of fame" had come to an end and announced that he was going to "give battle to those who want to violate freedom of expression."
In a statement, the journalistic team of La Posta responded to the president: "We reject the police, intimidating, authoritarian and misguided attitude of the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, who has used a national network to discredit our work and, at the same time, He openly threatens us in order to stop our investigations of corruption in his Government”.
The communicators held Lasso responsible for anything that could happen to them or their families. They ratified that they will continue to publish all the findings of the El Gran Padrino case, as this corruption plot has become known.
According to what was revealed by La Posta, despite the fact that Danilo Carrera has no position in the Government, with the collaboration of a friend of his, Rubén Cherres, he manages public entities and decides which private companies work with the State in exchange for bribes. In addition, on Monday, La Posta released a report from the Anti-Narcotics Unit of the National Police, which points to alleged links between the Government and the Albanian mafia, through Rubén Cherres, who would be the main operator of Danilo Carrera, brother-in-law of the Ecuadorian president.
That same day, Lasso had to appear before a National Assembly commission that is investigating these allegations of corruption in his government team, but he did not attend and alleged problems with his agenda. Carrera was also summoned to appear and did not do so either.
Lasso said that the report revealed by the media falls more on the level of a "false, false, insulting cartoon", in addition to having used the media space to "look for perks and canonries."
The journalist Andersson Boscán and his investigative team published a report prepared by the Police The military bombardment against Andersson Boscán | VAntinarcotics Plan of Ecuador that reveals the links between Rubén Chérres and Danilo Carrera. The 68-page police report was part of an investigation carried out by the Manta Prosecutor's Office in 2021. At that time, the authorities were investigating a drug trafficking case that they called "El León de Troya."
The State Attorney General's Office reported that the case was filed because the prosecutor in charge of the investigation received a report from the National Investigation Unit against Illicit Traffic for Internal Consumption that stated that "it has not been possible to obtain elements of conviction that provide to the investigative process. However, in light of the journalistic investigations, the Attorney General announced that legal control of the case was ordered and, if new elements were found, the investigation could be reopened.
According to such reports, the relationship of Cherres with Danilo Carrera and his influence in the appointment of ministers would be verified, such as that of Bernardo Manzano at the head of the Ministry of Agriculture, who presented his resignation on Tuesday: he is the fifth highest Lasso's cabinet official to resign in less than a week.
*Ecuadorian analyst and researcher, associated with the Latin American Center for Strategic Analysis (CLAE, www.estrategia.la)
