The former Ecuadorian minister Jose Serrano appears this Wednesday in Miami facing a hearing in immigration court that could lead to their repatriation to Ecuadorwhere he faces trial for the murder of a presidential candidate and where, according to what his family told EFE, he is at risk of death.
Serrano, minister during the leftist government of Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and who maintains an asylum process in progress in USAhas been detained since last August in the Krome Detention Centerin Miamiwhere the hearing is scheduled for this Wednesday.
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The former minister faces Ecuador a legal process for allegedly being one of the intellectual authors of the murder, in 2023, of the anti-Correísta presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
His daughter Verónica told EFE in a written statement that her father is the victim of a “mounting“of the same”criminals” that in 2012 the photojournalist was killed Juan Antonio Serranobrother of the then Minister of the Interior (2011-2016).
“He was murdered by the same criminals with whom today a setup has been created in Ecuador to persecute our father, criminals who have also declared in the courts of Spain that the current president of Ecuador (Daniel Noboa) is the one who ordered the murder of the presidential candidate Villavicencio.”, he stressed.
Serrano’s daughter refers to Wilmer Chavarriaalias ‘Pipo‘and one of the leaders of The Wolvesdetained in Spain and awaiting his extradition to Ecuador, who stated without evidence that a person close to the Ecuadorian Minister of the Interior, John Reimberghad told him that the crime was ordered by President Noboa, an extreme described as “folly” by that Government.
Veronica Serrano He assured that his father is a victim of criminals whom he “placed under the orders of justice and then were released by the governments that succeeded” to his.
“It is precisely those same structures and their tentacles in the Ecuadorian Government and justice that my father never stopped denouncing, which today represent an imminent risk to his life and integrity.”, he stressed.
His hearing occurs as President Noboa now begins a two-day official visit to Washington to fulfill an agenda.high level” which includes his intervention in a session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS).
The former minister, 54, entered the United States with a tourist visa in May 2021 and requested political asylum in October of that same year, citing, among other reasons, his fight against Los Lobos, the most violent criminal group in the country.
Serrano’s daughter avoided commenting on her father’s immigration situation in the United States, stating that “Asylum cases are reserved by law in the United States, so we must be very respectful of that legal framework.”.
Meanwhile, the immigration authorities consulted by EFE in Miami and Washington declined to comment on the case, stating that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had nothing to share at this time.
In addition to former Minister Serrano, the investigation into the murder of Villavicencio keeps the businessmen prosecuted as alleged intellectual authors. Xavier Jordan and Daniel Salcedolinked to corruption cases, and the former Correismo parliamentarian and former leader of the Latin Kings Ronny Aleaga.
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The Prosecutor’s Office has also linked several leaders of Los Lobos to the murder, including Chavarría, as well as José Patricio Aguas Muñozalias ‘Antisana’ or ‘Cholú’, arrested this year and who was considered a protected witness before becoming a fugitive; Luis Arboledaknown as ‘Gordo Luis’, and Esteban Aguilaralias ‘Lobo Menor’, captured in Mexico.
Among those convicted as material authors is Carlos Anguloalias ‘El Invisible’, another leader of Los Lobos accused of planning the logistics of the crime from prison.
In addition, eight people involved have died, including seven Colombian hitmen accused of the murder of Villavicencio on August 9, 2023 after leaving a rally.
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