Ecuador court condemns former president Lenín Moreno for corruption

According to the Attorney General’s Office of Ecuador, Moreno, 73, and six other people were convicted in the case. The former president’s wife and other family members received sentences of almost three years in prison for complicity.

The court considered that Moreno benefited from a corruption scheme related to the construction of the hydroelectric plant. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, family members of the former president received around US$1 million in bribes paid by Sinohydro to favor the venture.

The Prosecutor’s Office claims that the Chinese company had paid US$76 million in bribes, an amount equivalent to around 4% of the cost of the work.

Lenín Moreno denied having received money from the company and stated that he intends to appeal the decision. “I didn’t receive a single cent from Sinohydro,” said the former president.

In addition to Lenín Moreno, the case involves around 20 defendants

The process involves approximately 20 people, including Chinese citizens and a former Chinese ambassador. Two former Coca Codo Sinclair managers were also convicted.

The National Court of Justice stated that four of the defendants, including Moreno, were considered responsible for the crime of bribery.

Moreno was Rafael Correa’s vice president between 2007 and 2013, the period in which the hydroelectric project was developed. He became president in 2017 with the support of Correa, who governed Ecuador for a decade.

The two broke politically after Moreno assumed the presidency. The former president began to adopt a more right-wing orientation and became closer to the United States.

Lenín Moreno moves in a wheelchair. After leaving the Presidency, he served as the United Nations special envoy for disability issues, in Geneva, and as the Organization of American States (OAS) representative for people with disabilities, in Asunción.

Correa has lived in Belgium since leaving power. In 2020, he was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison in another corruption case involving companies such as Brazil’s Odebrecht.