Veronica Abad is fighting with Noboa since the beginning of the Government. She has reported that she is a victim of harassment by the president to force her to resign from office and has said that she fears for her life. In addition, she has described the Executive as a “dictatorship.” We will explain the reasons for the distancing later.
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On Monday, the prosecutor Carlos Alarcon reported in a video published on social networks that it found indications of the alleged participation of Abbot in the so-called Nene Caseand he inhibited himself from continuing to investigate it because for this it is necessary that the vice president be unmoored by the National Assembly. The criminal figure attributed to the authority is that of influence peddling.
The Vice President of Ecuador, Verónica Abad, attends a changing of the guard ceremony at the Carondelet government palace in Quito, on November 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa, File).
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What is the Nene Case?
The Nene Case arose after a complaint from an official fired from the Vice Presidency who pointed to Sebastian Barreiro Abad as the person who allegedly asked him to keep a part of his salary in exchange for influencing his hiring.
According to the investigation of the Transparency and Fight Against Corruption Unit of the Public Ministrythe complainant, identified as Rommel P.would have started working as a public official in the Vice Presidency of the Republic in December 2023.
The night of December 8, 2023, Rommel P. would have met with Sebastian Barreiro Abad and with another person in a hotel in Quito. Both allegedly offered him a job within the public service. with a salary of $3,200. However, the man had to give $2,000 to the vice president’s son.
After negotiating, they agreed to deliver nearly $1,700 to Barreirowhile Rommel P. would keep the rest of the salary.
To guarantee this payment, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, they convinced the victim to sign a bill of exchange for $30,600which would be used as a guarantee for the total amount that had to be paid within a period of one year.
After obtaining the job, Rommel P. could not make the first agreed payment. Later, he would have coordinated the delivery to Sebastian Barreiro of 3,400 dollars.
After the complaint of Rommel P.the Prosecutor’s Office opened a preliminary investigation against Barreiro last February 5.
On March 22, the Prosecutor’s Office carried out an operation in the offices of the Vice President in Quito and in that of Sebastián Barreiro Abad.
The Prosecutor’s Office asked the judge for preventive detention for Barreiro, who was sent to the maximum security prison La Roca, located in Guayaquil and where former vice president Jorge Glas and the leaders of the most dangerous criminal gangs in the country are also held.
In May, Barreiro He was released after paying bail.
Why is he linked to the vice president?
The prosecutor Carlos Alarcon He said that he intends to link the vice president in the case after the expansion of the complainant’s version and the discovery of new documentation related to a direct hiring that he decided Veronica Abad.
According to the Spanish newspaper The countrythe proof is information offered by a source by telephone or an intercepted call to the vice president herself, according to the prosecutor’s version, which has not been clear if the first or the second occurred.
Veronica Abad has defended the innocence of his son and has assured that The accusations against her are part of a political strategy to harm her and remove her from the position of vice president..
On Monday, Abad told the Unsión Televisión channel that she has not been notified by the Prosecutor’s Office and that her involvement in the case “is a clear use by the judicial side to politicize and to achieve the goals sought in this clearly political persecution.”
“They have no way of linking me because there is no necessary evidence,” she said from Tel Aviv, where she was sent by Noboa as ambassador to Israel.
Opinion…
Ecuador could enter a stage of instability and conflict
By Julio Echeverría,
Ecuadorian political analyst
It is not known for sure what the reasons for the president’s distancing from his vice president are. However, I think that has a lot to do with the choice of companion on the ballot. Before the elections, the then candidate Daniel Noboa He surely had no expectation of becoming president and the selection was made with the lightness that politicians usually do just to comply with the requirements imposed by the electoral authority. So, it is likely that the selection was not sufficiently thought out and studied, and that is why as soon as it was known that the candidate had a chance of being president, the contradictions and distance between them were uncovered.
Now, The president does not want to be replaced by the vice president for the month and fifteen days that the campaign for the 2025 elections will have. The distance between them makes the outlook uncertain, because based on statements from Veronica Abad The possibility has been suggested that she examine some policy lines that are already affirmed in Noboa’s management, such as the negotiation with the International Monetary Fund, the increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT). The same in the case of the review of the trials with which the former president was convicted. Rafael Correa. These are three issues on which the vice president has not had conclusive answers and has left open the possibility of them being reviewed. If that happens, the political situation would become very strained and the country would enter a stage of instability and conflict.
As for what may happen with the vice president in the National Assembly, the Noboa Government at this moment has serious difficulties with the Legislature, because it has lost the support it initially had, especially from the Social Christian Party and the Citizen Revolution, of Correa, with whom a governance agreement was established that allowed the approval of some important laws. Now those balances are broken. Furthermore, another possible ally, the Construye Movement, has distanced itself because the president himself has taken it upon himself to request the annulment of the electoral registration of this political organization.
So, the scenario is quite uphill for the president in the event that it has to go through the approval of the National Assembly for the vice president to proceed to trial.
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/7NB2II3O4RB3HLESNCDSCIVUZ4.jpg "The corruption case for which the Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office wants to prosecute Vice President Verónica Abad 1")
President Daniel Noboa and Vice President Verónica Abad wait to receive their credentials at the Teatro Sucre in Quito on November 15, 2023. (Photo by Rodrigo BUENDÍA / AFP).
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What’s next in the case?
The prosecutor Alarcon moved the case vice president to the National Court Jurisdiction Unitwhich sees the files of authorities protected by immunity.
This entity could then decide to send the matter to the National Assembly so that the jurisdiction is removed from Veronica Abad and continue with the investigation and possible criminal charges.
However, as El País notes, the Government of Noboa She does not have a majority in the National Assembly and the vice president could maintain her jurisdiction.
In Parliament, Noboa has lost the support of Revolución Ciudadana, the party of former president Rafael Correa, after the assault on the Mexican Embassy in Quito to capture Jorge Glas. He also lost the support of the Social Christian Party.
For Abad’s case to move forward, a vote of two-thirds of the National Assembly is required: 92 of 137.
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/AKD7MU2V5BB75CD4OTY2XTWSOI.jpg "The corruption case for which the Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office wants to prosecute Vice President Verónica Abad 2")
The Vice President of Ecuador, Verónica Abad, and President Daniel Noboa in November 2023 in Quito. (JOSÉ JÁCOME / EFE).
Distanced from the beginning
Daniel Noboa and Verónica Abad They were elected on October 15, 2023 to govern Ecuador until 2025 and complete the ex-president’s term Guillermo Lasso, who cut his term short and avoided being censured for alleged corruption in the National Assembly. Both assumed their positions on November 23. However, by then they were already estranged.
One of the first actions of Noboa as president he was appoint Abad as ambassador to Israel and representative of Ecuador for peacesomething the vice president did not agree with but complied with.
The tension between the two has been escalating in the face of the presidential elections of February 2025where Noboa He intends to run, but by law he must entrust power to his vice president while he carries out the electoral campaign.
In mid-May, Noboa told the EFE agency that the behavior of Abbot has been disloyal and that his relationship with her is extremely complicated.
She has also called him “authoritarian“, has said that in the country there is a “dictatorship“, while The president’s advisors accused her of being an “enemy supported by political groups that want to attack the government.”
For his part, the Vice Minister of Government, Esteban Torres, said at the end of May that “It would be disastrous” to entrust the Presidency to Abad in the event that Noboa runs for re-electionconsidering that the vice president “does not agree” with the president’s vision.
Ecuadorian law prohibits a public official from holding office while on an electoral campaign.
As El País notes, the Government intends to avoid at all costs Abbot assume power. For example, a public official denounced the vice president before the Electoral Court for having campaigned early, something that all Ecuadorian politicians do to make themselves known before the electoral race officially begins.
Noboa has also asked the State Attorney to analyze whether it is possible to remain unpaid as president, but not leave office during the campaign, indicates El País.
The other scenario is that Abbot ended up resigned. In that case, the National Assembly must name his replacement from a shortlist sent by Daniel Noboa. But she has already stated that she will not leave. Even this month she said in an interview with the portal Infobae that if he reaches the Presidency he will review some of the president’s decisions.
