Former Ecuadorian President Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz faced another court delay on Tuesday morning after a sudden power outage suspended his trial for alleged arms trafficking in Guayaquil.
The electricity blackout occurred around 8:00 a.m. local time, roughly 30 minutes before the trial hearing was scheduled to begin at the Albán Borja Judicial Unit. The outage left court officials unable to proceed with the legal session, forcing judges to postpone the case and set a new date for the proceeding.
The disruption marks the latest setback in the criminal process against the former leader, who served as president of Ecuador between 1996 and 1997. Bucaram faces charges of illegal arms trafficking, a case that has remained unresolved alongside multiple other judicial investigations against him.
COVID-19 medical supply case
In addition to the arms trafficking trial, Bucaram is facing a separate criminal prosecution involving the illegal commercialisation of COVID-19 rapid detection tests and other medical supplies during the health emergency.
The six-year-old case, known as the COVID-19 Tests case, names four co-defendants accused of participating in an organised crime structure. Alongside Bucaram, the defendants include his son Jacobo Bucaram Pulley, former transit officer Leandro Berrones Rosero, and Israeli citizen Sheinman Oren.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, the defendants formed a criminal ring that obtained economic benefits by commercialising around 21,000 rapid COVID-19 tests, in addition to other medical supplies, during the healthcare crisis. Prosecutors charge Berrones and Oren as direct perpetrators, while identifying Abdalá Bucaram and his son Jacobo as collaborators of the investigated structure.
Failed sentence readings and court fines
The four defendants continue to await a decision from the Trial Court six years after the investigation began in 2020. However, recent attempts to hold the final hearing and read the verdict have repeatedly collapsed.
The reading of the sentence was initially called for August 3, 2026, but the proceeding could not be installed due to the absence of one of the trial judges. The court then rescheduled the hearing for August 7, 2026, but that session also failed when Diego Córdoba, the lawyer representing Berrones, and Carolina Cruz, an expert witness and translator for Oren, failed to attend.
Following their non-attendance, the Trial Court fined both Córdoba and Cruz two unified basic salaries, equivalent to $964 each, and reported the decision to the Judicial Council. Judges also warned that if those summoned failed to appear at the next proceeding, they could be arrested and brought by law enforcement officers to guarantee their presence.
Hybrid hearing scheduled in Quito
Following the failed sessions, the Trial Court scheduled the reinstallation of the hearing for Wednesday, August 26, 2026, when judges are expected to read the sentence against the four defendants.
The proceeding will be held in a hybrid format, combining in-person participation at the Norte Judicial Complex in Quito with remote access via the Zoom video conferencing platform.
While the power failure in Guayaquil leaves Bucaram's arms trafficking case delayed once again, the former president is set to face the verdict in the medical supplies trial on Wednesday.
