Ecuador: Noboa’s main rival Luisa González arrested
Authorities in Ecuador have arrested leftist politician Luisa González over alleged money laundering in campaign financing. She rejects the accusations, and her camp speaks of persecution.
Archive image · Photo: Jhonatan Guerrero / Asamblea Nacional del Ecuador / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Leftist politician Luisa González, who finished second to President Daniel Noboa in each of the last two presidential elections, was arrested in Ecuador on Thursday. According to the Latin America Daily Briefing newsletter, citing Reuters and the newspaper El País, she was detained before dawn in Canuto in Manabí province. She is accused of money laundering linked to the financing of her 2023 campaign. She is presumed innocent.
According to prosecutors, about $500,000 flowed through legal entities into campaign advertising between May and August 2023 without the origin of the money being disclosed. Seven people are under investigation and three have been arrested. Investigators are also examining whether money from Venezuela reached her campaign and her then running mate Andrés Arauz. González called the accusations absurd. Her party, Citizens’ Revolution, describes the matter as merely an administrative discrepancy of $6,100.
Former President Rafael Correa, the party’s political mentor, spoke of persecution, while party leader Gabriela Rivadeneira called the move politically motivated. The arrest comes at a tense moment: the electoral court has barred Citizens’ Revolution from next month’s local elections, and González’s bid to run for prefect of Manabí for another party was rejected.