Guillermo Lasso has called the journalistic investigation into cases of corruption in his government a false caricature

President of Ecuador Guillermo Lassocriticized the digital media on Tuesday The mailwho published last monday a reserved investigation into an alleged corruption case in circles close to the government, which the president called a “false caricature” to obtain advantages.

Lasso said the report revealed by the media was more like a “false, misleading and insulting cartoon”, in addition to having used the media space to “seek advantages and canonicals”.

“My patience has a limit and their impudence is limitless,” the president said in a message to the nation, in which He got angry and assured that he would fight “the battle” against those who sow stories who want to affect his administration and his family.

The mail revealed a report from the anti-drug division of the Policecarried out between May and July 2021, in which appears Rubén Cherres, a person close to the government and also involved in an alleged bribery plot in state-owned enterprises.

Lasso described as abuse the fact that the digital medium published a “restricted report” without specifying that it had been archived by the Public Prosecutor’s Office after a court decision, before the “fundamental defect” to continue the investigation.

He assured that governing a country like Ecuador “is not easy” because this management is done under a “constant attack by drug traffickers, terrorists and organized crime”in addition to “unscrupulous politicians and media terrorists”, although he did not specify specific names or groups.

Despite this, “here I am showing my face, fighting,” added Lasso and assured that there are institutions more “concerned with overthrowing the government or, even worse, freeing criminals”.

He referred to comments in parliamentary circles that raised the possibility of impeachment of the president on impeachment, as well as a judge’s decision to accept a writ of habeas corpus in favor of an inmate considered as very dangerous and a leader of a criminal gang.

However, Lasso admitted that his brother-in-law, Danilo Carreramentioned in the survey, possibly He was not “suspicious enough to detect dishonest people who wanted to use him”although he is not a government official.

Carrera, who in a series of audios broadcast by the same media is named as the alleged “godfather” of an alleged network of corruption in public companies in the electricity sector, denied the facts and denounced the journalist Andersson Boscanone of the founders of The mailto which he claims half a million dollars.

Lasso insisted that these disclosures They only intend to ‘create cases and chaos where there is none’in order to “monetize the scandal”.

Moreover, he assured that with these denunciations he seeks “to keep Ecuador from corrupt, drug traffickers, organized crime”and “generate chaos to return to the land of the mafias”.

He said he had been so focused on his work that he forgot “that the spoiled should be stopped from a distance”.

“The quarter hour of glory for these infotainment mercenaries is over (…) and we will fight those who want to violate free speech and want to turn this country into a debauchery of evil stories and ill-intentioned to cause damage to Ecuadorian democracy,” he concluded.

Among the consequences of the report brought to light is the resignation of the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Bernardo Manzanowho in the telephone interceptions carried out on Cherres is mentioned as one of the presumed sponsors by this person to exercise public functions in the Lasso administration.

Manzano also denied attaining this portfolio through Cherres, although he admitted to having given him his curriculum vitae several months before he was appointed minister, and maintained that his departure was intended to avoid any suspicion affecting the executive.

(With information from EFE)

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