The president of the Judicial Council of EcuadorWilman Terán, was arrested this Thursday as part of an alleged large corruption plot with infiltrations of drug trafficking in the judicial, prison and police system, and which involves 30 investigated, including senior judges, prosecutors, police, lawyers and criminals.
In a message posted on social networks, The attorney general, Diana Salazar, anticipated that she will file charges for alleged organized crime against Terán and thirty other people investigated within the case dubbed the ‘Metastasis’ case.so called because of the extent of this apparent corruption plot at different levels of the State.
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Terán’s arrest was carried out as part of a large operation carried out in the early hours of this Thursday that involved more than 75 home raids. in seven of the country’s twenty-four provinces and which involved the deployment of more than 900 people, including prosecutors and police.
Terán spread the moment of his arrest on social networkswhich he described as “without any foundation.”
“Respecting the law, I will defend myself. With this persecution they have destroyed the judicial career,” he added. Teranwhose home was raided and searched, as well as the offices of the judiciary Council.
A few hours before, in another video message broadcast on social networks, the president of the Judicial Council had warned about this operationwhich he said “lacks all legitimacy and only obeys interests to hit and destabilize Justice and, therefore, democracy.
“Here I am, here I am, I’m in my office and I’m not hiding anything,” said Terán.who stated that this operation seeks to avoid his intention to purge the judiciary.
This episode occurs in the midst of strong tensions over Terán’s permanence in officeafter the Council for Citizen Participation and Citizen Participation (CPCCS) appointed him in February and the National Court of Justice withdrew confidence in him in August.
In parallel form, ‘correismo’ tries to promote in the National Assembly (Parliament) a political trial to dismiss the attorney generalafter having brought the accusation in previous years that led to the disqualification and sentence of eight years in prison for bribery against former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
Salazar explained that this investigation involving Terán arises from the murder in prison last year of Leandro Norero, one of the alleged biggest drug traffickers in Ecuador.
From that fact “indications of a criminal structure embedded in all levels of the State and directly linked to drug trafficking“said the attorney general.
“(The) leaders of the criminal structure had money obtained from illegal activities and they located corrupt officials who carried out their processes to obtain undue advantages in a system consumed by the cancer of corruption,” he added.
Salazar considered that “the Metastasis Case is a clear x-ray of how drug trafficking has taken over the institutions of the State.”to operate through ill-gotten money from judicial and political bodies and achieve impunity in some cases.”
The fiscal He emphasized that “today the term ‘narcopolitics’ has been made evident and is no longer distant, because we can see how criminal structures have permeated the institutions to achieve their objectives, and surely the response to this operation will be an escalation of violence.” .
Among the other detainees are former criminal judge Ronald Guerrero and retired Police General Pablo Ramírez.who was director of the national prison system and later director of the Police Anti-Narcotics Unit.
