[Politics] Investigation against Andrés Arauz and members of UNES is rejected by members of the correísmo

[#Wittels-]

 

Since last June there was a previous investigation in the Public Prosecutor's Office for unjustified private enrichment against Andrés Arauz, as leader of UNES.

The previous investigation opened in the Public Prosecutor's Office for the crime of unjustified private enrichment against the former presidential candidate of Correísmo, Andrés Arauz, and the electoral alliance 1-5 Unión por la Esperanza (UNES), the president of the Citizen Revolution movement, Marcela Aguiñaga , maintains that this case began with "false news" and is part of the "lawfare" that has been reactivated in Ecuador.

“Through false news, an investigation was launched into an alleged unjustified private enrichment against our former presidential candidate (Andrés Arauz) and against more than 54 people. (...) Once again, judicial tools are used to silence those of us who think differently, to whom we believe that the government model represented by Mr. (Guillermo) Lasso is not the one that suits Ecuador, ”Aguiñaga said in a joint press conference with legislators from the UNES bench.

 

According to the Prosecutor's Office, since last June 30 there would be a prior investigation for the crime of unjustified private enrichment against Andrés Arauz, as leader of UNES and presidential candidate at that time, an investigation that would also include the alliance that sheltered that candidacy. This pre-trial phase would have started after the complaint filed on March 11 by Carlos Andrés Aguilar, representative of the political-citizen platform Patria sin Corrupción.

Just Aguilar, through a press release, rejected what is said from the correísmo that this investigation Papers of the Assembly of the Pandora.

 

The principal of Patria sin Corrupción indicates that within the reserved phase of the investigation in the case against Arauz the Prosecutor's Office had already ordered proceedings and issued official letters requesting information from control entities such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Superintendencies of Companies and Banks, among other.

On the personal Twitter account of former President Rafael Correa, he wrote, last Wednesday: “Pandora Papers appears and the Prosecutor's Office investigates ... Alliance 1-5! They no longer even keep the forms! ”. To the message, which was deleted shortly after being published, two documents from the Prosecutor's Office were attached with which it was intended to notify Arauz, the legal representative of the UNES Alliance, and 24 other natural and legal persons of the previous investigation.

 

On the afternoon of last Wednesday, the Prosecutor's Office pointed out that due to the crime of unjustified private enrichment, the person under investigation is Andrés Arauz and that the names of the 25 remaining natural and legal persons (companies) were not those investigated, but were being notified to render a version of what they know of the case. The dates of these procedures are not yet known.

Among those who would be notified for a version in the investigation for unjustified private enrichment are Juan Carlos Monedero, a Spanish political scientist who participated as an observer in the last elections in Ecuador; the representatives or managers of the Mexican company Neurona, the Consultorianeurona Sociedad Anónima, Celag Geopolítica Compañía, Ingeniería de Control IFP Cía. Ltda., Consultores de Negocios Globales GBCON C. L. and VIBE Corporation VBCO C. Ltda.

The Prosecutor's Office confirmed that there would be, in addition to the previous investigation against Arauz for unjustified private enrichment, a previous investigation against Monedero and Neurona. It would be in charge of a different prosecutor, although apparently what would be analyzed are irregular events that occurred in the last electoral campaign in Ecuador, which in some way could be related.

 

Aguilar, at that time, described that they must investigate crimes such as unjustified private enrichment, organized crime and illicit association.

The complaint submitted indicates that the consulting firm Neurona would be being investigated in Spain for its services to the United Podemos political party, during the 2019 electoral campaign. According to the platform, that company would have been part of a contract in Ecuador that amounts to $ 20 million and that according to what they learned from the Spanish newspaper Vozpópuli, Neurona has been the creditor of at least $ 10 million "that the campaign team of the presidential candidate Andrés Arauz has disbursed for his electoral propaganda."

 

Among the natural persons who are notified immediately to indicate a judicial domicile for future notifications in the Arauz case are Sergio Martín Carrillo, Alfredo Serrano Mancilla; the Mexicans César Hernández and Andrea López; and the Argentine Celso Oglietti. Twelve other Ecuadorians would also be on the list to render versions.

López and Oglietti founded the Consultorianeurona company in Quito in 2016. The Mexican is a shareholder of Neurona Consulting in Mexico, while the Argentine is a Celag shareholder.

Aguiñaga recalled that the accounts of the political organization that he leads are open for the National Electoral Council, when appropriate, to proceed to audit them and clarified to the Prosecutor's Office that at all times they have submitted the reports of rigor in accordance with the law.

 

To the alleged persecution that would exist against members of the correísmo, the bloc of legislators of the UNES bench added that at this moment they are being threatened with legal action, said Paola Cabezas, coordinator of the bench, for having fulfilled the task of supervising the President Guillermo Lasso.

The legal announcements, Cabezas indicated, would have come publicly from government officials and the coordinator of the ruling party in the Assembly, Luis Fernando Flores. The latter said that they will present legal complaints to the Prosecutor's Office to investigate acts framed in a plan to destabilize and create an idea of social unrest in the country to justify what they intend to do: remove the President of the Republic.

Cabezas and Victoria Desintonio are part of the Assembly's Constitutional Guarantees Commission that investigated and approved a report on the so-called Pandora Papers in which President Lasso has been mentioned. The Assemblywoman of Correismo Mónica Palacios has also pushed the investigation, providing information on the subject obtained in Panama.

 

“We want to make it clear that the Prosecutor's Office is being imprisoned, it is being used with political media fines, to try to silence and silence the rights that legislators have in the attribution of their functions to be able to supervise the actions of a government. (...) This is so crude and so mediatic that the Prosecutor's Office intends to use the Office to supposedly seek to dismiss our legislators, "added the president of the Citizen Revolution. 

 

Link: https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/politica/investigacion-contra-andres-arauz-y-miembros-de-unes-es-rechazada-por-integrantes-del-correismo-nota/