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Armando Valladares arrives in Ecuador to visit Galo Lara
Posted On 07 May 2018
Ecuadornews:
The former United States ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Cuban Armando Valladares, will arrive in Guayaquil in the next few hours, to visit the ex-Gestapola Galo Lara, imprisoned in the Regional Center # 8 in Guayaquil.
Valladares, who was imprisoned for 22 years in Cuban prisons, accused of acts of terrorism against the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba, is one of the most famous prisoners of conscience in the world. He leads a delegation in what he has described as a “humanitarian visit.”
Lara was sentenced to ten years in prison by the National Court of Justice of Ecuador, as an accomplice to a triple murder, which occurred in Quinsaloma, province of Los Rios, of which he was accused by the then Minister of the Interior, José Serrano. Galo Lara was, when he was accused, one of the most important opposition legislators against the government of Rafael Correa. Lara was prosecuted by the then Prosecutor Galo Chiriboga, despite the fact that the National Assembly denied authorization to prosecute him.
Initially, despite the public pressure of the Correa government, Lara was declared innocent by the Court of the accusation to be the intellectual author of the triple crime. The acquittal was appealed by the Prosecutor’s Office, and a room of the National Court, changed the sentence for complicity. Lara’s defense has always maintained that the opposition was accused and unjustly condemned as part of the persecution process that the Correa government followed against its opponents.
In addition to Valladares, the delegation will be integrated by the Ecuadorian Marcel Feraud Vivar, member of the board of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy (IID), and will be accompanied by lawyer Juan Vizueta, defender of Galo Lara, and Cesar Ricaurte, Director of Fundamedios.
“In a democracy there should not be political prisoners. I am going to Ecuador in this Human Rights mission to know your prison situation. The lack of appropriate conditions are unacceptable from any point of view and from any accusation or type of crimes that weigh on the prisoners, “Valladares said in Miami, before embarking to Guayaquil, where he will give a press conference on Tuesday, May 8 at 11.00 hours at the Hilton Colon Hotel. (I)
