• Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso, at the crossroads
  • Latin America Guillermo Lasso's challenges in changing Ecuador's course

The businessman Rubén Cherres, one of those involved in the alleged corruption plot in public companies in Ecuador that originated the political trial filed against the president, Guillermo Lasso, was found dead on Friday and with apparent signs of violence in a building with three other people.

The identity of Cherres, a figure close to the ruling party, was confirmed by the National Police of Ecuador after analyzing the fingerprints of the bodies found in a house in the canton (municipality) of Punta Blanca, in the coastal province of Santa Elena.

Cherres, 63, was among those involved in an alleged corruption network in public companies investigated by the Prosecutor's Office and where Danilo Carrera, Lasso's brother-in-law, also appears, in addition to appearing in a report of a police investigation where he was followed up for alleged links with drug trafficking.

The voice attributed to this businessman was heard in several of the audios disseminated by the digital media La Posta to reveal the alleged corruption plot that operated in public companies in the country's electricity and oil sector supposedly dedicated to placing relatives in the public administration and obtaining contracts.

The case was initially called "The Great Godfather", due to the presence as the alleged leader of the network of the president's brother-in-law, and then it was renamed the "Encuentro" case, when the Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation into it.

Later, Cherres' name came to the fore again in a report by the Anti-Drug Police also released by La Posta where he was among a group of people who were being followed by agents with the aim of dismantling a possible drug trafficking network.

As a result of the telephone interceptions carried out in the framework of that investigation, the link that Cherres had had with the presidential campaign of Guillermo Lasso in 2021 was revealed.

Both cases were taken by the opposition, which has a majority in the National Assembly (Parliament), to initiate the procedure of impeachment of the head of state, considering that he allegedly had knowledge of the alleged corrupt plot.

Some sectors of the opposition also believe that there are indications that Lasso allegedly protected Cherres from the investigation carried out by the police by ordering, according to them, that the investigation be closed.

Thus, the opposition, which leads the correísmo, activated the process of impeachment against Lasso for the alleged crimes of concussion and embezzlement (embezzlement of public funds).

However, when reviewed by the Constitutional Court, this court did not approve on Wednesday the accusation of concussion and only left the one of embezzlement, referring to alleged irregular contracts that were signed in 2018 and 2020 in the public company Flota Petrolera Ecuatoriana (Flopec), before Lasso came to power.

The impeachment has been rejected outright by Lasso, who claims his innocence and accuses the opposition of attempting a "parliamentary coup d'état", with a process that, according to the president, is full of false evidence and "smells very bad".

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