Ecuador: Prosecutor to File Charges Against the Bucaram Clan

The Prosecutor's Office Wednesday reported that a special task force, which is investigating corruption cases in the purchase of medical supplies, requested to file charges against the sons of former President Abdala Bucaram (1996-97), who is also involved in this scandal.

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The Task Force, which is made up of agents from the Public Ministry and the Police, accuses the Bucaram clan of an illegal association to purchase overpriced medicines during the pandemic. Dalo, Michelle, and Jacobo Bucaram, the three sons of the former president, have been mentioned in the investigations.

On June 4, a judge ordered the house arrest of Abdala Bucaram. This happened a day after a police operation found boxes of medicines stored in his home. However, the right-wing politician was only charged with alleged illicit trafficking in firearms.

That raid responded to an order from the Prosecutor's Office in Guayaquil and Quito, as part of an investigation for alleged corruption in the purchase of medical products during the pandemic.

Days later, the local press reported that a judge had ordered the capture of Michelle and Dalo. It was also ordered the capture of Dalo's wife, Gabriela Pazmiño, a former lawmaker.

However, Dalo Bucaram traveled to the United States, where he spoke in favor of his friend Daniel Salcedo, a politician who tried to escape Ecuador after the corruption case became known.

The Bucaram clan, however, vows that Salcedo is just a "persecuted politician" for the mere fact of being a friend of the family.