Prosecutor who investigated President’s relative was changed to other functions

Nelson Vela Andrade, prosecutor who served in the Special Unit for Crimes against Public Welfare of Guayas and that, under that charge, indicted four former Government officials for embezzlement (including a relative of the President) last December 6, has been changed from investigating and prosecuting perpetrators of crimes to “recive complaints, lifting bodies and accompany the police on raids.”

The embezzlement case that supposedly “condemned” him was the one against four former employees of the Ministry of Tourism for alleged false quotes to favor, using (public) contracts, companies of the Navas Group.

They are: former director of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage (INPC) and former Secretary of Coastal Turism, Esteban Delgado de la Cuadra, Loira Delgado Granizo (relative of Rafael Correa), former manager of Coastal Tourism, Aline Gutierrez Northia, former Marketing chief, and Peter Cedeño from the Administrative Unit.

Esteban De La Cuadra

The memorandum appointing Vela’s placement on his “new position” came two weeks after his decision. Now, he asks for explanations to his superiors and is currently waiting for a logical answer.

On declarations to El Universo Newspaper, the prosecutor admitted he doesn’t know if the reason for his transfer was political or due to the “apparent need for staff in that particular unit of the Prosecutor’s Office.“