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(CNN Spanish) - Ecuador's Criminal Guarantees Unit reported on Saturday that a judge ordered the arrest for the purpose of investigation for three members of the family of former President Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz, who since June 4 has been under house arrest in the midst of an alleged case of corruption that he denies.
The criminal guarantees judge Marco Eduardo Guerra requested the location and capture of Michel Bucaram Pulley and Abdalá Bucaram Pulley, as well as his wife Gabriela Pazmiño Pino, sons and daughter-in-law of the former president, in order to put them under orders from the authorities.
The Bucaram Pazmiño husbands have been in the United States for several days, according to statements issued on Bucaram Pulley's own social networks.
The state attorney general, Diana Salazar, indicated on June 4 that the raids on the homes of former President Bucaram and his son are part of an alleged corruption network that would have operated in Social Security hospitals in Guayaquil to sell medical supplies at a premium.
- MIRA: Judge orders house arrest for former President of Ecuador Abdalá Bucaram
Abdullah Bucaram Pulley has responded to the Prosecutor's Office that "they cannot pretend to continue using the Bucaram family," and dismissed her from what he called "countless nonsense."
Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz, who ruled from 1996 to 1997, was arrested on June 3 for the alleged crime of illicit arms trafficking, after a search of his home where dozens of boxes of medical supplies and tests for coronavirus, merchandise were found. that his lawyer claims that they were acquired legally. A day later, the house arrest order was issued.
A Twitter account attributed to former President Bucaram Ortiz referred to the arrest warrants for investigative purposes of his two sons and daughter-in-law. He said that the process shows "hatred and cowardly persecution" against his family, and that "they put together crooked processes only to make a media scandal."
The arrest warrants against the relatives of the former president were issued after this week the Prosecutor's Office linked the citizen Daniel Salcedo in the process for the alleged crime of embezzlement in the acquisition of medical supplies for one of the Social Security hospitals in Guayaquil , and a judge ordered preventive detention against him.
Salcedo was expelled from Peru on June 10, after a small plane in which he intended to leave the country crashed on the border between that country and Ecuador. The citizen is hospitalized and under police protection in Guayaquil.
His lawyer, Luz María Pico, has declared to the media that "the rights of a person with a delicate health condition are being violated" and that he is not being allowed to exercise his right to speak with his defenders. She added that she is willing to "collaborate with the country."
On June 9, Abdalá Bucaram Pulley told the Ecuavisa chain that he was staying in Miami with his family at Daniel Salcedo's house, whom he recognized as his personal friend and who contributed money to one of his electoral campaigns. However, Bucaram Pulley reported that same day that he left that house to go to another friend's house, considering that there is a "persecution" against him.
The government minister, María Paula Romo, specified that the judicial authorities must determine if Salcedo was operating as figurehead for the Bucaram family.
The Vice President of the Republic, Otto Sonnenholzer, wrote this Saturday in his verified Twitter account that during the last week painful acts of corruption have been seen; escape attempts, downed planes, and unpublished answers to awkward questions.
"No matter names, positions, relationships or friends, the only solution is that there is no impunity," said Sonnenholzner.
Abdullah Bucaram