Ecuador’s ex-president Bucaram Arrested in Connection with Covid Graft Probe

June 3, 2020

El expresidente ecuatoriano Abdala Bucaram (c), es escoltado a la Unidad de Flagrancia, tras ser detenido a primera hora de este miércoles en su residencia en Guayaquil (Ecuador), en el marco de una vasta redada contra la corrupción ordenada por la Fiscalía General del Estado en varias ciudades. EFE/Marcos Pin

HAVANA TIMES – Ecuador’s former president Abdala Bucaram has been arrested in connection with a corruption investigation related to the Covid-19 pandemic, reported dpa news on Wednesday.

Police searched Bucaram’s house in the port city of Guayaquil and found him to illegally possess a gun.

The arrest was based on that charge, but the search was related to suspicions that Bucaram was involved in embezzlement in the purchase of medical supplies.

Other addresses were also searched in Guayaquil and in the capital, Quito, with several people arrested, prosecutors said.

Bucaram held the presidency for only about six months in 1996-97. Congress removed him from office following corruption allegations and mass protests, and he went into exile in Panama for two decades.

Guayaquil is the hotspot of novel coronavirus infections in Ecuador, one of the Latin American countries with the most Covid-19 cases. The government has confirmed more than 40,400 infections and over 3,400 deaths.

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