2024-05-01 19:29:17
Sebastián Barreiro, son of Verónica Abad, is accused of influence peddling in the Vice Presidency. He is detained in La Roca, Guayaquil.
The arrest and sending to a maximum security prison of the son of the vice president of Ecuador, Verónica Abad, investigated for alleged influence peddling, has unleashed a whirlwind in the country’s political class due to the electoral implications for the February elections. 2025. And after that arrest, voices have been raised about a possible request for impeachment of censure against Abad in the Assembly, where she had criticized an apparent implicit pact between the ruling party and the Christian Social and Correísta opposition groups.
Released from the Government and residing in Israel since shortly after President Daniel Noboa sent her to Tel Aviv as ambassador, Abad has shown signs of resisting the challenges of a political break with the president, with whom she came to power in August 2023. .
Sebastián Barreiro, Abad’s son, was arrested and accused by the State Attorney General’s Office of being involved in an alleged case of influence peddling in the Vice Presidency.
A lawyer by profession, Barreiro must serve his preventive detention in La Roca, maximum security prison located in Guayaquil, where the leaders of organized crime gangs are located. The vice president’s son, in the case named ‘Nene’, was detained on Thursday in his office in the Andean city of Cuenca, where he resides, but the court handling the case transferred him to prison in the jurisdiction of Guayaquil.
Political management?
For analyst Ramiro Aguilar, this seems to be an obvious case of political manipulation, regardless of whether the accused crime is proven, since the decision to send him to La Roca seems disproportionate.
Furthermore, Aguilar told EFE, the fact of having sent Barreiro to a maximum security prison in a jurisdiction other than his own, with a preventive detention order (only for investigation), seems to be excessive.
“There is a clear political interest,” he insisted after agreeing with other analysts who believe that it is a maneuver to force an eventual resignation of the vice president, before the electoral campaign begins.
And President Noboa, who plans to run in these elections to repeat the position in 2025, should entrust the leadership of the country to the vice president, as the Constitution mandates, in order to be able to dedicate himself to the electoral campaign. The distance between Abad and Noboa is so evident that it raises the possibility that the consequent end will be for her to withdraw from the political scene, Aguilar pointed out.
If this were to happen, the vacant position of Abbot would have to be filled by another person appointed by Parliament, including the president of the Legislature himself, the Christian Socialist Henry Kronfle.
The journalist and political analyst Juan Carlos Calderón estimated in statements to the media, for his part, that he could be a figure linked to Correism, considering that this group will also strive to win the elections and not be contaminated by the eventual wear and tear of the Government.
Nearby elections
At the moment, the Ecuadorian political class seems to be in a hurry because of the ticking of the electoral timer, since in politics “times are very fast and, sometimes, there is no time to react,” he added. “The campaign will begin in November, Noboa will have to resign in December” to dedicate himself to proselytizing, recalled Aguilar, who insisted that Abad’s eventual withdrawal from the political scene could have some relationship with the case of his son.
That is why he reiterated that, in his opinion, the accusation for which Barreiro is now being investigated may “be true or, perhaps, even provoked,” but he pointed out that the handling that is being given to the case has clear indications of how the interests act. politicians in certain judicial decisions. Despite this, Aguilar stressed that Abad is not “an easy nut to crack” and that he could also
By: PRIMICIAS