Prosecutor will investigate presumed relationship of the FARC with Correa

Ecuadornews:

The prosecutor’s Office received the complaint filed by the national secretary of Communication, Andrés Michelena, to investigate an alleged financial contribution of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to a presidential campaign of former President Rafael Correa.

Michelena requested that the investigations be initiated in an “urgent” manner, after the Mexican journalist Fernando Del Rincon presented to President Lenin Moreno the alleged testimony of a protected witness of the FARC, which affirmed the link between Correa and the former armed group.

The secretary of Communication went to the Prosecutor’s Office on April 20. That same day, the Secretary of the Office of the Prosecutor, María Paz Ruiz, received the petition and ordered that action be taken.

The Office of the Prosecutor will communicate with the Head of the Legal Area of Cable News Network, Kelli Slade, so that she can send the video with the statements of the former member of the FARC.

According to Moreno, the witness’s statement mentions that former paramilitary Paco Velasco was the intermediary between the insurgents and Correa. It is not specified for which of the three candidacies of the former president the funds were allocated.

Velasco, speaking to CNN, denied categorically that he had received money from the FARC, neither for his campaign as an assembly member nor for Rafael Correa’s nominations.

Moreno said that he expects to investigate the veracity of the audiovisual product, which, in his opinion, has “two or three inaccuracies.”

Rafael Correa has denied ties to the FARC and accuses the government of launching a “smoke screen” with this investigation.

Background

In July 2009, the then Colombian Attorney General, Mario Iguarán, said there was evidence on the computers of the dejected guerrilla leader “Raúl Reyes” that allowed “inferring” alleged links between two former Ecuadorian officials with the FARC.

The Colombian Army bombed on March 1, 2008 a FARC camp installed in Ecuadorian territory, in which 26 people died, including number two of the FARC, alias “Raul Reyes”, and Franklin Alisalla, a citizen of that country.

After the operation, the Colombian military recovered two computers and several USB flash drives for personal use of “Reyes”, in which emails are recorded between the guerrilla leader and personalities from various countries.

Iguarán said then, the computer evidence showed the alleged links of Gustavo Larrea and José Ignacio Chauvín, two Ecuadorian officials of the time, with the FARC guerrillas. (I)

Source: https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/politica/3/correa-farc-investigacion