Patricia Ochoa reacts to Serrano’s deportation, bringing Ecuador’s Gabela case back into focus

José Serrano’s return to Ecuador has revived an older grievance for Patricia Ochoa, the widow of former Air Force commander Jorge Gabela. After Serrano’s deportation from the United States and transfer to the El Encuentro prison, Ochoa publicly challenged the former interior minister once again.

Ochoa said the time remaining in her life would not be enough for Serrano to “pay for the damage” she believes he caused to other people. Her remarks reflect her longstanding criticism of the authorities involved in investigating her husband’s death, although they concern a different case from the proceedings that currently hold Serrano in custody.

Serrano returned to Ecuador on Aug. 28, 2026, and was taken to the prison in Santa Elena under a preventive detention order in the Magnicidio FV investigation. The case examines the alleged intellectual authorship of the killing of Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot on Aug. 9, 2023, after a political rally in Quito. President Daniel Noboa released images of Serrano’s transfer and arrival at the prison.

The connection Ochoa draws to the Gabela case dates back to her husband’s opposition to the purchase of seven Dhruv helicopters from India’s HAL. Gabela was shot at his home in Samborondón in December 2010 and died days later. Later controversy centered on a report known as the Third Product, prepared by Argentine expert Roberto Meza. The document disappeared from state archives and had to be reconstructed years later. The Constitutional Court received records related to that reconstruction in 2023, including the reconstructed final report delivered in July of that year.

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Pay for the damage