The Ecuadorian attorney general who called for the arrest of Rafael Correa, Diana Salazar, has received a video with a brutal threat in the last few hours. “Before I kill you, I make you cry and suffer. If you don’t go the good way, go the hard way,” can be heard in the video in which a group of people with long guns appear.
The footage, which came to him via a WhatsApp message on his cell phone, lasts about a minute. An armed group of hooded men appears in it. There are seven people who don’t show their faces but the long weapons they are holding. All dressed in black and jeans.
One of them begins: “Last time you saved me because someone spoke for you. But this time I don’t think you will save me. I have all your locations“.
And he continues to threaten his daughter: “You are about to have a birthday. I don’t want to spoil your party by killing your daughter. Because before I kill you, I make you cry and suffer.”
“This is easy and simple. If you don’t go the right way, go the hard way. And for the bad I send you to party in hell so decide well‘ he added defiantly.
“Dianita, don’t make me use all my powermy people and my weapons that are more than you think and imagine. Decide well or you will be my next military target“, concludes the message that arrived after 1 in the morning and was released by the Ecuadorian prosecutor’s office. “Good morning, you decide”was the written sentence that accompanied the video sent.
In a statement, the institution warned that “direct threats to the integrity of the highest authority have increased”.
“We reject any attempt at intimidation that occurs due to the unlimited respect of the constitutional powers entrusted to us and we reaffirm our commitment to work in a technical and objective way”, they express.
And they conclude: “We ask citizens, the international community and the state in general to do so stay tuned before any attempt to take over this institution by any means and at any cost”.
For his part, Prosecutor Salazar denounced desperate attempts to do so on Tuesday remove her from office by two state agencies he attributed to reprisals for the corruption cases he is conducting against Correa and other high officials of that government.
In an interview on the TV channel ecuavisa, the head of the prosecutor’s office said that “everything they are falsifying is solely with the intention of taking justice, they will not achieve it because they are not right and the truth.” He said such “desperate attempts are made with disinformation to create expectations that go against the law and the constitution.”
On Monday night, the Council of Justice convened a meeting to analyze a disciplinary file against the prosecutor and a possible suspension.
The session was not set due to the absence of the members, according to what was communicated by the magistrates’ control body after the prosecution’s complaint. And later, Wilman Terán, president of that body that administers justice in Ecuador, argued that it was a misunderstanding and that he respected the institutional framework.
Neither the constitution nor the laws in Ecuador allow the judiciary to sanction the Attorney General.
The controversy over the prosecutor’s university thesis
In the last few hours, the Citizen Participation Council has informed Salazar that a file has been opened at the request of two groups of citizens who denounced the alleged plagiarism in the thesis of the General Prosecutor’s Office. She has been summoned for a hearing scheduled for Friday and informed that if she does not appear, the official can be dismissed.
Given the notice, Salazar said that these organizations do not have the power to control or carry out actions against the prosecutor’s office and argued that these trials are promoted by those seeking impunity, those deprived of their liberty, fugitives from justice.
It refers to the former president Raffaele Correa (2007-2017), its former vice president Jorge Glas, recently released from prison for corruption cases; the former state comptroller, Pablo Celi, in prison; former Ombudsman, Freddy Carrión, also in prison for sexual abuse; and many of the top officials of the former leftist president’s regime, prosecuted during his tenure as head of the Ecuadorian attorney general’s office.
On the situation, in his Twitter account, Correa attacked her: “I only seek justice, which is the worst curse for corrupt, evil and foolish people like you. You are right to be desperate. Almost there…“.
Salazar recalled that the body that nominated you to the post and the only one that can terminate its functions is the National Assembly, which is closed until the next elections. “The Attorney General is subject to the political scrutiny of the National Assembly, not the disciplinary regime of the Council of the Judiciary,” he defended on his Twitter.
The country’s president, Guillermo Lasso, decided weeks ago to dissolve the Assembly by applying the figure known as cross-death which forces him to shorten his mandate and call elections. He did it in the midst of a serious political and government crisis. To replace the president and lawmakers, elections have been set for August 20.
The Attorney General has one year and 10 months left to finish his period of management and added that in the face of these attempts to remove her from office, “the Prosecutor’s Office will act with all the force of the law”, even if he did not anticipate what type of actions.
The president of the National Court of Justice, Iván Saquicela, called for respect for the institutional nature of the judiciary and assured that the judiciary “cannot suspend or prosecute the Attorney General” and added that “respect for the judiciary cannot be surrendered or negotiated”.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.