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For Carlos Pareja Yanuzzelli, also known as Capaya, it was supposed to be like a scene from a courtroom drama, where the defendant proves their case and walks out of the courtroom victorious.
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But for Ecuadoreans on Twitter, it was more like a scene from a slapstick comedy.
On Friday an anonymous Twitter account called @CapayaLeaks released a video of Pareja— a former Ecuadorean oil minister who fled to Miami and is wanted in Ecuador for his connection to a corruption scandal— taking a lie detector test.
He was trying to validate his unsubstantiated accusation that leftist Ecuadorean vice-presidential candidate Jorge Glas is complicit in the same corruption scandal Ecuador's president has vowed to expose.
In the video, Pareja is strapped to a polygraph machine inside of a Miami hotel room. Next to him is an unnamed "international expert in criminal polygraph" tests.
That’s when hundreds of Ecuadoreans on Twitter did a double take, mostly because they’ve seen that face before.
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The "expert" is Joe Harper, a former Miami-Dade county police detective who gained fame for his frequent appearances on the popular Spanish-language comedy and entertainment show "Sabado Gigante," where Chilean television personality Mario Kreutzberger (Don Francisco) hosted everything from comedy skits to half-naked dance competitions.
Harper was the star of a regular segment on the show "The Lie Detector" where as "El Gatillero" he and Don Francisco would hook people to a polygraph machine to see if they were telling the truth, usually about supposed infidelities.
The comedy of the segment revolved around Harper’s unmistakable "gringo" Spanish accent and mispronunciations, which often turned into bawdy sexual innuendos which Don Francisco would milk for laughs.
Given that Sabado Gigante ran for more that 50 years and generations of Ecuadoreans have grown up watching the show, they were quick to respond to Harper’s reappearance in the midst of a heated presidential election campaign.
Quien hace la prueba del poligrafo a #Capaya es "El Gatillero" de Sábado Gigante. ¡Puro Show! #CapayaEsIsaías https://t.co/iGCcjytmmZ
— Leonardo Berrezueta (@LeoBerrezueta) February 3, 2017
The guy who did the polygraph test on Capaya is "El Gatillero" from Sabado Gigante. Pure Show !
-Consíguete un experto q haga la prueba de polígrafo para #Capaya
— Vitico (@victorharog) February 3, 2017
-Es parte del show?
-Si.
-Vi uno en TV!
-Dale! pic.twitter.com/FVAuVPX97G
Get an expert to do the polygraph test for Capaya. / Is it part of the show? / Yes / I saw one on T.V. ! / Get him!
El nuevo show de la Opo, hoy fue usado un empleado de Don Francisco para jugar a desacreditar al Gobierno #CapayaEsIsaias @MOFLETV pilas! pic.twitter.com/toHzggA4nO
— Ecuatoriano sin paro (@Dantelo70) February 3, 2017
The new show of the Opposition today used an employee of Don Francisco to play at discrediting the government.
It’s no surprise that many reacted the way they did.
At first glance, the video’s direct association with Sabado Gigante suggests the polygraph test is more comedy than high drama.
But given Don Francisco’s own past praise of the economic policies of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and Joe Harper’s own Twitter shout-out’s to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the politics of the @CapayaLeaks intervention become clearer.
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Pareja, who fled to Miami after the corruption allegations surfaced, has reportedly met with the Miami-based Isaias brothers, who claimed refugee status in the U.S. after they were found guilty of embezzlement in connection with their roles as the heads of the Filanbanco during Ecuador's banking crisis in the late 1990s.
According to Correa, Pareja and the Isaias brothers are working with Ecuador's opposition parties to sway voters for the upcoming elections.
A video purportedly released by Anonymous in October shows the Isaias brothers meeting in Miami with current vice presidential candidate for the right-wing CREO party Andres Paez, as well as CREO party president Cesar Monges.
"They have a whole campaign to try to damage the Government and Jorge Glas, desperate because of the upcoming elections," Correa warned.
In a previous interview with a local network, Pareja had told an Ecuadorean reporter that he couldn’t accuse Vice President Glas of any corruption.
While far from being tested in any court, for what it’s worth Harper’s polygraph test results claimed Pareja was "truthful in his responses," giving him a supposed 95.69 percent probability of accuracy.
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