The crisis of the ‘fugitive ministers’ in Latin America
The Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Relations announced that Gabriel Fuks, Argentina’s ambassador in Kito, was expelled and that Ecuador’s ambassador, Xavier Monge, was also summoned to the country for consultations in Buenos Aires.
Recalling that the former Minister of Public Works, María de los Ángeles Duarte, was convicted of corruption, Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín said in a press release that the former minister lived in the residence of Ambassador Fuks for more than 2 years so as not to go to cell. Former minister Duarte, sentenced to 8 years in prison for bribery in Ecuador, left the Argentine embassy in Kito, where he had resided since August 2020, and sought refuge in Venezuela.
In the statement from the Argentine Foreign Ministry, it was indicated that Duarte, who was in the embassy’s diplomatic residence, went to Venezuela and said: “Mrs. Duarte is currently in Caracas and did not share with her why she made such a decision. There is no information that she went to her son. Duarte has no intention of traveling to Argentina in the short term,” the statement said.
The Ecuadorian government also stressed that Argentina made inconsistent statements and claimed that the Embassy did not share with them the security camera footage of how Duarte fled the country.
Duarte, who was offered asylum by the Argentine government, was unable to leave the residence because Ecuador did not allow him to leave the country.
OLD GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION CHARGE
The investigation “Bribes 2012-2016”, led by Attorney General Diana Salazar, began with allegations of irregularities in the financing of the electoral campaigns of the Alianza PAIS, headed by the former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, in 2012-2016 .
The corruption allegations included the name of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which was at the center of the biggest corruption scandal in Latin American history, as well as national and international companies.
Rafael Correa served as the President of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017.
As part of the investigation “Bribes 2012-2016”, on August 9, 2019, the arrest warrant requested against Correa was approved. (AA)