Ecuador Seeks Interpol Red Notice for ex-president Correa
HAVANA TIMES – Ecuador wants Interpol to issue a red notice for former president Rafael Correa, who is currently resident in Belgium and was recently handed an eight-year prison sentence for corruption, reported dpa news.
“We are talking about a sentence which has already been executed,”
Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo told Teleamazonas television on Thursday.
A red notice is a request by a country to locate and arrest a wanted individual, but it is not the same as an arrest warrant.
The international police organization has so far been reluctant to cooperate with Ecuador on Correa, who claims to be the victim of political persecution.
The judiciary on Wednesday ordered the arrest of Correa and 17 other people who had been found guilty of participating in a corruption network.
Correa, who has lived in Belgium since 2017, had announced plans to seek the vice presidency in elections in February.
But a court confirmed his prison sentence earlier this month. The decision barred the 57-year-old, who was president from 2007-2017, from holding public office.
Correa was found guilty of involvement in a corruption network within which companies allegedly paid millions of dollars for public contracts.
President Lenin Moreno was initially allied with his predecessor, but parted ways with him soon after taking office in 2017.
Interpol has not “been reluctant to cooperate with Ecuador on Correa.” Interpol has refused Ecuador’s other requests to arrest former President Rafael Correa. The persecution of Correa is what is known as “lawfare” – the attempt to eliminate major political opposition through trumped up legal prosecutions.
Correa is a Socialist, so how could he possibly be guilty of corruption?