Ecuador’s Correa Warns of Opposition’s New ‘Bomb’ — His Brother

Ecuador’s Correa Warns of Opposition’s New ‘Bomb’ — His Brother
Fecha de publicación: 
13 February 2017
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The incumbent leader said the opposition will release a tape in which his brother Fabricio claims that Odebrecht, the Brazilian oil company involved in an ongoing corruption scandal, financed his party’s 2006 campaign. 

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa warned on Friday that opposition groups will release a new “bomb” that will try to damage his PAIS Alliance party’s electoral bid.

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The incumbent leader said the groups will release a tape in which his brother Fabricio claims that Odebrecht, the Brazilian oil company involved in an ongoing corruption scandal, financed the democratic socialist party’s 2006 campaign. 

Fabricio, a wealthy businessman who was shunned by his younger brother over a decade ago, has close relationships with Odebrecht and the Ecuadorean opposition.

“The next bomb is coming, I’m warning you,” Correa said in a recent interview, El Telegrafo reports. 

“They are going to take a recording where Fabricio Correa supposedly says he has given us [PAIS Alliance] financing from Odebrecht. I’m warning the Ecuadorean people: this is the next bomb that the opposition is using in desperation, because they know what awaits them next February 19.”

Odebrecht has been accused of using illegal practices to award lucrative public works projects in the countries it operated in. Last December, the U.S. Department of Justice published an investigation into Odebrecht, where the company was accused of paying bribes to public officials from 12 countries in order to win development contracts.

Fabricio, who Correa claims illegally withholds wages from overseas workers and avoids paying taxes, owns constructions businesses connected to Odebrecht. The pro-opposition businessman was investigated by Panamanian prosecutors last year because of embezzlement concerns, McClatchy reports. His shady corporate ties were exposed in the Panama Papers.

The forthcoming video featuring Fabricio is just one of many dirty campaign tactics Ecuador’s right-wing opposition is using against PAIS Alliance.

Last week, an anonymous Twitter account connected with the opposition called @CapayaLeaks released a video of a fugitive Ecuadorean oil minister claiming that PAIS Alliance vice-presidential candidate Jorge Glas was complicit in his corruption scandal. The fugitive, Carlos Pareja Yanuzzelli, fled to Miami after being convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud and embezzlement by an Ecuadorean court.

Pareja’s video is believed to have been filmed in the same Miami hotel room used in a separate interview with Roberto and William Isaias, fugitive banker brothers whose embezzlement led to Ecuador’s 1999 financial crisis. Pareja, who took a lie detector test to “prove” Glas’ complicity, hired the services of polygraph “expert” Joe Harper. 

Harper is a former Miami-Dade county police detective who gained fame for his frequent appearances on the popular Spanish-language comedy and entertainment show "Sabado Gigante," where Chilean television personality Mario Kreutzberger (Don Francisco) hosted everything from comedy skits to half-naked dance competitions.

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The right-wing opposition’s attempts to damage PAIS Alliance’s image are innumerable. Despite these dirty campaign tactics, Correa says his party remains strong.

“They affected us, but we are already recovering,” he said. 

“We were prepared, we had intelligence, we knew that they had met with the Isaiahs.”

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