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Ecuadorian candidate denounces frozen bank accounts as political “persecution”
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Ecuadorian candidate denounces frozen bank accounts as political “persecution”

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Ongoing story
  • Guayaquil mayoral candidate Andrés Roche said authorities froze the bank accounts of his companies and their legal representatives.
  • Roche called the action political persecution and alleged he had received a warning about consequences if he failed to meet unspecified conditions.
  • His accusation came a day after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights urged Ecuador to ensure plural and equal political participation in November’s local elections.

Andrés Roche says the freezing of his companies’ bank accounts is an attempt to remove him from Guayaquil’s mayoral race because his support is rising.

“It's unacceptable and condemnable to try to eliminate an experienced alternative capable of making Guayaquil be Guayaquil again, simply because it is rising in public preference while the official candidates are falling,” Roche said in a video posted on social media.

It's unacceptable and condemnable to try to eliminate an experienced alternative capable of making Guayaquil be Guayaquil again, simply because it is rising in public preference while the official candidates are falling.

— Andrés RocheThe Guayaquil mayoral candidate described the account freezes as an effort to remove him from the election.

Roche, a former director of Guayaquil’s transit agency, is running for mayor with the conservative Social Christian Party, which governed the city for 30 years. The party also backed former mayor Cynthia Viteri, who is seeking to return to office with the political force of President Daniel Noboa.

Roche said the accounts of his companies’ legal representatives had also been blocked “without any legal reason.” He said he had received an alleged warning days earlier about what might happen “if I did not comply with certain conditions,” and said the account freezes had now materialized.

If I did not comply with certain conditions.

— Andrés RocheRoche referred to an alleged warning he received before his companies’ accounts were frozen.

The accusation followed a call by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for Ecuador to guarantee that the Nov. 29 local elections take place with plural and equal political participation. The commission cited the elimination and suspension of opposition parties, including the suspension of the Citizens’ Revolution party, the main opposition force linked to former President Rafael Correa.

Indigenous and environmental groups had previously reported frozen accounts after protests against the government’s removal of the diesel subsidy and a mining project. Human Rights Watch criticized those measures, saying Ecuador’s Financial and Economic Analysis Unit had relied on a law allowing accounts to be frozen without a court order when it identifies serious and verifiable indications of financial operations.

Develop with plural and equal political participation.

— Inter-American Commission on Human RightsThe commission urged Ecuador to protect political participation in the local elections.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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