The businessman Rubén Cherres, one of those involved in the alleged corruption plot in public companies in Ecuador that led to the impeachment trial against the president, Guillermo Lasso, was found dead this Friday and with apparent signs of violence in a building along with other three people.
The identity of Cherres, a character close to the ruling party, was confirmed by the Ecuadorian National Police after analyzing the fingerprints of the bodies found in a house in Punta Blanca, in the coastal province of Santa Elena.
Both the body of Cherres, 63, and that of the other three people, including two men and a woman, were handcuffed and with bullet wounds, according to the Prosecutor's Office. Interior Minister Juan Zapata confirmed that the four showed signs of torture. An arrest warrant issued on January 21 weighed on the businessman.
Cherres was among those involved in an alleged network of corruption in public companies that the Prosecutor's Office is investigating and where Danilo Carrera, Lasso's brother-in-law, also appears, in addition to appearing in a report of a police investigation where he was followed up for alleged links with the drug trafficking
The voice attributed to this businessman was heard in several of the audios broadcast by the digital media La Posta to reveal the alleged corruption scheme that operated in public companies in the country's electricity and oil sector, allegedly dedicated to placing relatives in the public administration and obtaining hires.
The case was initially called "The Great Godfather", due to the presence as the supposed leader of the president's brother-in-law, and then it was renamed the "Encounter" case, when the Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation in this regard.
Later, the name of Cherres came to the fore again in a report by the Anti-Drug Police also published by La Posta, where he was among a group of people whom the agents were monitoring with the aim of dismantling a possible network of drug trafficking
As a result of the telephone interceptions carried out in the framework of that investigation, the link that Cherres had had with the presidential campaign of Guillermo Lasso in 2021 was revealed.
Both cases were taken by the opposition, which has a majority in the National Assembly (Parliament), to initiate the impeachment procedure against the head of state, considering that he allegedly had knowledge of the alleged corrupt plot.
Some sectors of the opposition also believe that there are indications that Lasso allegedly protected Cherres from the investigation carried out by the Police by ordering, according to them, that the investigation be archived.
Thus, the opposition, which leads correísmo, activated the impeachment process against Lasso for the alleged crimes of extortion and embezzlement (embezzlement of public funds).
However, when reviewed by the Constitutional Court, this court did not approve the accusation of concussion on Wednesday and only left the one of embezzlement, referring to alleged irregular contracts that were signed in 2018 and 2020 in the public company Flota Petrolera Ecuatoriana (Flopec ), before Lasso came to power.
The political trial has been rejected outright by Lasso, who claims his innocence and accuses the opposition of attempting a "parliamentary coup", with a process that, according to the president, is full of false evidence and "smells very bad". .
