Rafael Correa.
Credit: JOHN THYS / AFP via Getty Images
(CNN Spanish) -
A week before the presidential elections in Ecuador, Correísmo reacted to the publication this Saturday of the magazine Semana, from Colombia, on an alleged financing by the Colombian guerrilla of the Army of National Liberation (ELN ) to the campaign of the candidate for the Presidency of Ecuador of Unión por la Esperanza (Unes) Andrés Arauz, promoted by former President Rafael Correa, who described the accusation as an “international dirty campaign”.
Semana notes that he had access to documents and communications from whom the Colombian government allegedly identified as the head of the ELN's western war bloc, Andrés Felipe Vanegas Londoño, alias “Uriel,” and who has already been killed.
The publication indicates that in the reports of “Uriel” to the ELN leadership, he reported a “loan contribution” of money to at least one electoral campaign in Ecuador for US $ 80,000, without specifying to which party or political movement.
However, the communications that Semana says he had access to would provide clues, details and data that are presumably linked to Andrés Arauz's campaign, such as the logo and campaign slogan of the Union for Hope movement for which he participates.
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Semana makes mention of alleged communications from "Uriel", who was killed in October 2020, showing interest in the Ecuadorian electoral campaign and whose election day is scheduled for this February 7.
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CNN has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the documents cited by Semana.
CNN also contacted the Attorney General's Office of Ecuador to find out if the institution will request information from its counterpart in Colombia about the information released by Semana, but the press department told CNN that "there are still no instructions on the matter."
Former President Rafael Correa, who has lived in Belgium since 2017, spoke through his Twitter account about the publication of Revista Semana, which he described as "infamy."
He added that it is a "dirty international campaign" and that now "it is no longer the FARC, but the ELN," referring to alleged links of which he has been accused and of which he has defended his innocence.
CNN en Español sought the reaction of Andrés Arauz through his campaign, but he has not yet responded and the candidate has not commented on the publication on his social networks.
The supporters of correísmo have shown their support for the candidate Andrés Arauz in their social media accounts, like the legislator Lira Villalba who wrote: “In recent days we will see the desperate do the unimaginable.
They know that Arauz is first in all the polls.
They want to prevent the people from consecrating it ”, he emphasized.
While Fausto Herrera, former Finance Minister of the Correa government, wrote that the press is "using foreign reinforcements" and that Revista Semana uses an "alleged encrypted message from the ELN" because they are "desperate."
Until May 2018, dialogues between the Colombian government and an ELN delegation were held in Quito to reach a peace agreement after President Lenin Moreno announced that the country was no longer serving as the headquarters for the negotiations.
Ecuador's decision came after more than a year of talks in Quito and after a wave of violence unleashed on the border with Colombia.
Rafel Correa