The Anti-Corruption Parliamentary Front submitted to the State Attorney General’s Office a crime news that would involve 21 people, including candidates for mayors, prefects and councilors from five provinces on alleged links with criminal organizations related to drug trafficking, organized crime and money laundering.
This January 6, the legislators that make up the front led by assembly members Fernando Villavicencio and Sofía Sánchez came to the Prosecutor’s Office to request that it initiate an investigation and warn of the dangers that exist to avoid electoral contamination with drug trafficking. The names of the candidates for mayor of Manta and Tosagua, in Manabí; San Lorenzo, Rioverde, Atacames and the Esmeraldas canton; a candidate for prefect in Sucumbíos; a candidate for councilor in the Las Naves canton, Bolívar province; and, of the legislator Ronny Aleaga for the Union for Hope (UNES) bench. Although this would be a first delivery of information and new cases would be presented in the coming days, the assembly members warned.
Anti-Corruption Parliamentary Front will present to the Prosecutor’s Office the names of candidates for mayors, prefects and councilors linked to drug trafficking
The group of assembly members, in their crime news, includes the names of the current mayor of Manta, Agustín Intriago Quijano, candidate for re-election on list 107; Romel Cedeño Rodríguez, candidate for mayor of Tosagua, in Manabí, for the Citizen Revolution movement list 5; Adis Aracelis Solís Rodríguez, candidate for Mayor of San Lorenzo, province of Esmeraldas, also for the Citizen Revolution; of Froilán Aldaz, ‘Don Napo’, candidate for councilor of the Las Naves cantonin the province of Bolívar by the Pachakutik movement.
Included in the list as people who would be related to criminal organizations linked to Enrique Portocarrero, operator of the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels, Ana Caicedo Rodríguez, candidate for Mayor of Rioverde; Édison Hólger Manjarrés Bastidas, current councilor of Atacames and candidate for mayor of that canton; Miguel Armando Ruiz Quintero, candidate for Mayor of Esmeraldas.
Likewise, it is exposed the name of Humberto Antonio Chávez Angamarca, current prefect of the province of Sucumbíos, candidate for re-election with the support of the SUMA movement and Pachakutik, who would be related to Luis Mario Guerrero Sánchez, who would have been his external adviser and campaign financier who was assassinated under the form of hit man on December 22, 2022.
Sofía Sánchez (Pachakutik) clarified that the complaint does not constitute a persecution of political parties or candidates, but rather the crime and the connections of aspirants to sectional governments with drug trafficking. There are several candidates and even advisers and more officials who today aspire to reach a position of popular election.
If names of candidates linked to drug trafficking appear in Pachakutik, they will also be investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office and if they have criminal repercussions they should not participate in the next electoral contest, but if they win and their links to drug trafficking are proven, they will not be able to assume the charges .
Cases in Manabí
In the information provided, the Parliamentary Front indicates that on June 13, 2022, Assemblyman Fernando Villavicencio sent the Prosecutor an crime news, in which he informed of the events carried out in the well-known Operation Dignity, directed by the National Police, in which a series of actions were carried out through which several criminal organizations were dismantled.
In this operation, 18 raids were carried out on properties located in the cities of Manta, Portoviejo, La Concordia, Esmeraldas, Quitumbe, Machala, Pasaje and Naranjal-Balao, where fourteen people were arrested, including (+) Leandro Norero Tigua, who was located, intercepted and arrested in a property that belonged to Xavier Jordán Mendoza, a fugitive from justice prosecuted for illicit association.
In the crime news, The legislators once again put in context that the arrest of Leandro Norero revealed “the tentacles of drug trafficking that managed to become embedded through the execution of public works, such as the case of the Decentralized Autonomous Government of Manta, that maintains million-dollar contracts with companies linked to the cartels, which used front men as contractors, as is the case of the foreign citizen Daniel Mistele, who would configure the profile of an operator or front man for Norero Tigua, that is, we are in a scenario where the drug money has been used and destined for the construction of works”.
In the documentation, the legislators maintain that Daniel Mistele “is not only a contractor, since he has also closely followed the 2019 electoral campaigns of the mayor of Manta, Agustín Intriago Quijano, today a candidate for re-election to the same dignity for list 107 , as well as being an active follower and participant in campaigns for different elections of the Alianza PAIS movement, today Revolución Ciudadana”.
Regarding the case of Rómel Cedeño Rodríguez, current candidate for mayor of Tosagua, The document that rests in the Prosecutor’s Office indicates that on September 1, 2022, the same legislator Villavicencio sent the Prosecutor’s Office a crime news about the now candidate, who was prosecuted for the crime of organized crime in 2021, reports that there were three operations in Manabí on drug trafficking, which was key to identifying an organization presumably led by the current candidate for mayor of Tosagua
According to police investigations, Cedeño, in association with other citizens, had equipment for conditioning clandestine tracks strategically built in areas of abundant vegetation and difficult access.
After being prosecuted, on July 7, 2021, there was a hearing to issue a dismissal order by virtue of the fact that the prosecutor for organized, transnational and international crime 4, Celinda Chacho Yépez, presented her non-adversarial examination because the judge of the Unit Judicial Norte 2 of Guayaquil refrained from accusing Rómel Cedeño.
The legislators, in their complaint, include the statements of the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, made in December 2022 in the United States, where he assured that there are candidates for the sectional elections that are linked to drug trafficking.
Cases in Esmeraldas
Regarding the cases of Esmeraldas, it is noted that in the San Lorenzo canton Adis Aracelis Solís Rodríguez is a candidate for mayor, by the Revolución Ciudadana movement, list 5, which is presumably linked to criminal groups.
Solís held various positions in the public service from 2009 to 2020, and before the Comptroller declared under oath that until 2017 he had assets of $1,200, he had no vehicles or real estate. But two years later, his estate increased to $240,000, although Solís has not justified the origin of those funds.
Among the public positions held, according to the complaint, she was director of the Civil Registry in the San Lorenzo canton, where she operated a corruption network that irregularly delivered identity cards to Colombian citizens who were members of the FARC and supposedly to soccer players. In said position, Solís had complaints for document falsification, breach of trust and identity theft, but they never prospered or were filed. The complaint includes photographs of the Solís home room, where there is a red suitcase with wads of bills.
The complaint also mentions Enrique Antonio Portocarrero Castillo, operator of the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels, who was arrested in Spain in November 2022, who would have ties to the Los Cabezas criminal organization, who in turn would support the candidacies for mayor of Atacames by Hólger Manjarrés Bastidas, from the SUMA 23 movement; Ana Caicedo Rodríguez, from the Movimiento Centro Democrático, list 1, for the Mayor of the Rioverde canton; and, from Miguel Ruiz Quintero, from the Movimiento Centro Democrático, list 1, to the Mayor of the Esmeraldas canton.
Other provinces
Froilán Aldaz, aka Don Napo, He is the candidate for councilor of the Las Naves canton, in the province of Bolívar, by the Pachakutik movement. Sentenced in 2015 as a co-perpetrator of the crime of illicit drug trafficking, he received a custodial sentence for twelve years. Four years later, Aldaz filed an extraordinary appeal for review in 2019, which was granted by the Chamber Court. Specialized Criminal, Military Criminal, Police Criminal and Traffic of the National Court of Justice and restored his state of innocence.
Don Napo Today he is registered as a candidate for councilor and advises his daughter, Ángela, who at the same time is running to be mayor of the Las Naves canton for Pachakutik.
The current prefect of the province of Sucumbíos, Humberto Antonio Chávez Angamarca, seeks re-election with the support of the SUMA movement and Pachakutik. He would be related to Luis Mario Guerrero Sánchez, who would have been his external adviser and campaign financier and was assassinated under the hit-man mode on December 22, 2022.
The Prefecture registers the Consorcio Celi Cía Cía as a supplier from 2020 to 2022. Ltda., which has been hired for a total of $3,592,587.13, and registers Miró José Celi Obando as legal representative, with a history of drug trafficking in 2016 and is a shareholder of the Crecer Mas Consortium, with which it subscribed a road rehabilitation contract for the parishes of Nueva Loja and Santa Cecilia and the canton of Lago Agrio from 2020 to 2022 for a total amount of $4,996,491.20.
It should be noted that Luis Guerrero Sánchez would be a supplier to the Crecer Mas and Celi Celi Cía. Ltda. Likewise, Luis Guerrero Sánchez is a shareholder of GBL Construcciones SA and a shareholder of the Más Vías Sucumbíos consortium and of Celi Celi Cía. Ltd. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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