Previous Story
Moreno declassifies information about Fernando Balda and General Gabela
Posted On 05 Jun 2018
Ecuadornews:
The president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, today announced the declassification of the information of a controversial case in which the kidnapping, in Colombia, of the ex-legislator Fernando Balda is being investigated.
“We have taken the decision to declassify absolutely all the information that the Senain (National Intelligence Secretariat) has regarding the alleged kidnapping that Mr. Balda suffered in the city of Bogotá,” Moreno told reporters.
In that case, the Ecuadorian National Court of Justice on Thursday handed down an order for preventive detention, for investigation purposes, against former police commander Fausto Tamayo and former intelligence secretary Pablo Romero, after being linked to the alleged kidnapping in 2012 of the politician.
Judge Daniella Camacho linked both as “alleged mediated authors of the crimes of conspiracy and kidnapping to Fernando Balda”, a former legislator who was a tough opponent during the government of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
President Moreno also announced that among the “famous cases” from which all the information will be declassified is that of the death of General Jorge Gabela, former commander of the Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE)
Patricia Ochoa, widow of Gabela, questions a report that attributes to common crime the murder in December 2010 of her husband, who opposed the purchase of helicopters, several of which later suffered accidents.
The governor added today that they have decided to send the Ombudsman’s Office the cases of ex-legislator Galo Lara and David Romo to provide them with the respective reports.
An ex-ambassador in the province of Los Ríos, as representative of the opposition Patriotic Society, Lara was sentenced to ten years in prison for his alleged complicity in a triple crime that occurred in 2011. The accusation was prompted by the then Minister of the Interior, José Serrano, and orchestrated by the government’s propaganda apparatus, based in SECOM.
Lara claims to be a political persecuted Correa government for revealing the corruption of the Brazilian company Odebrecht in Ecuador in those years.
In the case of Romo, on May 14, Judge Telmo Molina issued an appeal to trial against six involved in the alleged murder of him, disappeared in May 2013 in strange circumstances related to a supposed rehabilitation clinic for the treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction.
“I believe that with that we are going to achieve that the respect is reinforced, which on more than one occasion, we have said that we should have for other human beings,” said Moreno.
“Human rights are fundamental: the right to life, to security, the right to social services are a fundamental part of a democracy and we do not want, under any circumstances not being close to them,” said the head of state. (I)
