The government denies its participation in the escape of former minister Correa and bilateral relations with Ecuador are cracking

Alberto Fernández and Santiago Cafiero were finishing dinner in Olivos last night when their mobile phones rang at the same time: a WhatsApp with the same text said that Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín claimed during an appearance reserved for the Congress than during a telephone conversation the Argentinian president had recognized the participation of the ambassadors Gabriel Fucks -Ecuador- and Oscar Laborde -Venezuela- in the escape plan this allowed María de los Ángeles Duarte to escape from the diplomatic headquarters in Quito to Caracas, where she remained under the protection of the Nicolás Maduro regime.

The Head of State and his Minister of Foreign Affairs could not believe Holguín’s statements before the Ecuadorian deputies. Alberto Fernández happened to have a conversation with the Minister of Foreign Relations of Ecuador and, during this thirty-minute dialogue, he pointed out that the government had no responsibility in the escape of the ex-minister of Rafael Correa.

The conversation took place when Fuks was in the lobby of the Holguín office to officially learn that he had been declared ungrateful person and that he therefore had to leave Ecuador within the next 72 hours. At that moment, Alberto Fernández calls him on the phone and Fucks tells Holguín that the president was on the phone.

From that moment, the Head of State and the Ecuadorian Chancellor chatted for half an hour and, during this time, Alberto Fernández reportedly explained that Argentina does not have Duarte custody duty, What The custody of the former minister is the responsibility of the Ecuadorian government and that Ecuador was trying to use Argentina to cover up a very serious mistake made by the Lasso administration.

“It is unfortunate that the collection of anecdotes and no evidence to support the position of the Ecuadorian government continues. Lack of professionalism or internal political urgency they are not going to define the relationship between two sister nations,” they commented to the Foreign Office when GlobeLiveMedia asked about Holguín’s reserved statement to the Ecuadorian Congress.

The informal conversation between Alberto Fernández and Holguín took place on Tuesday, April 14 at 7:00 p.m. (Argentina time). And a day later, the Minister of Foreign Affairs attends a meeting of the Congressional Oversight Commission to present his point of view on the events confronting Argentina and Ecuador:

According to the reconstruction that GlobeLiveMedia made in Quito, Holguín would have described the dialogue with Alberto Fernández as follows:

1. That Argentina officially did not participate in the evacuation plan of Duarte in Venezuela.

2. What The plan was executed under the responsibility of the Argentine Ambassador to Venezuela, Oscar Laborde.

3. That the Argentine Ambassador to Ecuador, Gabriel Fucks, he lied to the Argentine Foreign Ministry about the date of his escape.

The position of Holguín before the deputies and the firm response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are – again – cracking the bilateral relations between Argentina and Ecuador. Meanwhile, Duarte has decided to stay in Caracas under the protection of the Maduro regime. The former minister is a fugitive from Ecuadorian justice, like her political boss Rafael Correa, who was granted asylum in Belgium.

Duarte and Correa were found guilty of corruption: the former president managed to flee to Brussels, while his former minister did not have time and took refuge in the Argentine embassy in Quito. After two years in the diplomatic seat, Duarte applied for humanitarian asylum, alleging he had an underage son with an Argentinian.

Correa asked Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to grant asylum to her former minister, and the vice president accepted her arguments. Alberto Fernández validated Correa and CFK’s request, and granted asylum, which Ecuador never validated for strong legal reasons.

It is a right granted irregularly. The OAS convention excludes asylum -regardless of status- if the beneficiary has a conviction against him for cases of corruption. And Duarte is in that legal condition.

For this reason, the Guillermo Lasso administration never granted safe conduct that would allow Duarte to leave the embassy for Buenos Aires. Without a safe-conduct, the former minister was at the mercy of Ecuadorian justice. And Duarte, assuming that would never happen, decided to flee to Venezuela on a clandestine flight.

But this atypical asylum is a dead letter. Duarte arrived in Caracas alone, and her son is in Guayaquil with his maternal aunt. Thus, if Duarte lands in Ezeiza, justice could demand his capture and detention for his eight-year sentence. There are no longer any alleged humanitarian reasons, and the ex-minister should pay for his active participation – like Correa – in collecting bribes from foreign companies that have carried out public works in Ecuador.

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