Cover-Up in Ecuador? Disputed Presidential Election Rocked by New Allegation from 2023 Assassination

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, as we turn to Ecuador, where President Daniel Noboa won reelection in a runoff vote Sunday, according to preliminary results.

PRESIDENT DANIEL NOBOA: [translated] This event has been historic. The victory has also been historic, a victory of more than 10 points, a victory of more than 1 million votes, where there’s no doubt who the winner is. And it is based on perseverance, struggle, work of each of the members of this team, of this team that seeks this new Ecuador.

AMY GOODMAN: But Noboa’s leftist rival, Luisa González, the successor of former President Rafael Correa, is challenging the official results.

LUISA GONZÁLEZ: [translated] One of the exit polls gave us victory. None showed a difference like the one we are seeing at the Electoral Council. None. Therefore, I report, before my people, before the media, before the world, that Ecuador is experiencing a dictatorship. We are facing the worst and most grotesque electoral fraud in the history of the Republic of Ecuador.

AMY GOODMAN: Daniel Noboa is a business magnate, heir to a banana industry fortune, who’s made cracking down on crime his main priority. He’s been condemned for skirting legal norms in the process, including declaring a state of internal armed conflict to more easily deploy the military. On the eve of the election, he declared another state of emergency, barring protests and authorizing warrantless searches.

For more, we’re still joined by José Olivares, investigative journalist and Drop Site News contributor, where he had a recent piece headlined “Dramatic Video from Widow of Slain Candidate Rocks Presidential Race in Ecuador, Confirms Drop Site Investigation,” in which he shared this video posted on X by Verónica Sarauz, the widow of Fernando Villavicencio. She talks about her husband’s assassination and the subsequent attempt to frame the political party of the former President Rafael Correa for the murder.

VERÓNICA SARAUZ: [translated] I am Verónica Sarauz. I want to denounce to the country and the international community an act of cover-up between the attorney general, Diana Salazar, and the president, Daniel Noboa, who are allowing complete impunity for the assassination and magnicide of my husband, Fernando Villavicencio, in August 2023, just days before the first round of elections in the last elections. I cannot and must not remain silent.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re going to José Olivares, who’s joining us from Mexico City, to discuss this dramatic video and the presidential race in Ecuador. José, if you can respond?

JOSÉ OLIVARES: Yes, just very briefly. So, in 2023, Fernando Villavicencio, this anti-corruption candidate who vowed to take on the drug and criminal organizations in Ecuador, was assassinated in the lead-up to the elections. And following after that, we saw people, supporters of Villavicencio, come out and blame and essentially say that Rafael Correa and his political party were responsible for the assassination.

Last year, Ryan Grim and I at Drop Site News, we received over 1,500 leaked chats showing — from within the attorney general’s office, showing that, essentially, the attorney general knew exactly probably who was responsible for the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio; however, she let this lie, this rumor, run that Correa was responsible for the assassination. And it was done with political motives, right?

And so, now we’re seeing the widow of Fernando Villavicencio come out publicly, days before this election, saying, “Listen, the attorney general, Diana Salazar, and Daniel Noboa are conspiring. They’re politicizing my husband’s death and essentially blaming Correa and delaying the investigation so that Daniel Noboa could have some sort of benefit in the lead-up to his election, which he won on Sunday.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, José, we only have about a minute left, but could you talk about the visit recently of Erik Prince, a Trump ally, who founded the mercenary company Blackwater, to Ecuador, where supposedly he was providing law enforcement and the military the tools and tactics to combat narco gangs?

JOSÉ OLIVARES: That’s right. I mean, Erik Prince’s visit to Ecuador was not just to sort of provide some sort of security structure or infrastructure or training to Daniel Noboa’s armed forces, but he was also there actively campaigning in favor of Daniel Noboa.

Now, what’s interesting is that we’re seeing how Daniel Noboa is cozying up to the Trump administration. He was there, front and center, when Trump took power during his inauguration. And we’re also seeing how Daniel Noboa is requesting that the U.S. government send special forces, send the U.S. military into Ecuador to also help fight in this drug war that Daniel Noboa launched last year.

And we’re seeing also how Erik Prince is very happy to make a deal with Daniel Noboa to provide training, to provide services to the armed forces as they engage in this, you know, drug war that has been plagued with allegations of human rights abuses by the armed forces.

AMY GOODMAN: José Olivares, we want to thank you for being with us, journalist with Drop Site News.

JOSÉ OLIVARES: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: We’ll link to your pieces at democracynow.org. When we come back, The Dark Money Game.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “Jesus of Suburbia” by Green Day. On Saturday, the band performed the song at Coachella music festival and changed the lyrics from “running away from pain when you’ve been victimized” to “running away from pain like kids in Palestine.”