A former official of the government of Guillermo Lasso
requested refuge in Argentina and was denied
.
This is Hernán Luque, former delegate of Ecuadorian President
Guillermo Lasso
on the Board of Directors of the Public Companies Coordinating Company (EMCO),
involved in the corruption network that affects
the president himself, who in turn
is on the verge of a trial politician and possible removal.
Luque's request before the National Commission for Refugees (CONARE) and its immediate
rejection
is curious.
It occurred almost in parallel to the escalation between Alberto Fernández and Lasso
over the escape from the Argentine embassy in Ecuador of a former correista official accused of corruption, who had spent two years as a "guest" in a humanitarian capacity.
This is
María de los Angeles Duarte Pesantes
, former Minister of Transport and Public Works in the government of Rafael Correa -the friend of Vice President Cristina Kirchner- and who
was granted asylum by Alberto Fernández last August
.
Lasso refused to give him a pass to leave the Argentine embassy in Quito for Buenos Aires.
And between March 9 and 10, the woman escaped from the embassy and appeared at the Argentine headquarters in Caracas.
In the case of Duarte Pesantes, who appeared at the Argentine embassy in Caracas, the now former foreign minister of Lasso, Juan Carlos Holguín, expelled the Argentine ambassador Gabriel Fuks from Ecuador.
He accused him of having complicity with the escape of Duarte Pesantes from the Argentine headquarters.
Fuks denied it and both Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero and Alberto Fernández defended the official, which even led to a
harsh exchange of letters between the two presidents and the cooling of the relationship.
President Guillermo Lasso
Lasso is completely weakened, shaken by the resignations in his cabinet, by a political trial, by the violence in the streets and by the onslaught of drug trafficking.
On Sunday he decided
to release the possession and carrying of weapons for civil defense
, which sparked a strong controversy.
In the midst of all this clash, Luque asked for his political refuge, because
he would have been in Argentine territory.
The
president of the Oversight Commission of the Ecuadorian National Assembly, Fernándo Villavicencio, was the one who reported this weekend that the "former EMCO manager, fugitive from justice, Hernán Luque, requested political asylum (he was a refugee) in Argentina."
Sources consulted in Buenos Aires confirmed to
Clarín
that CONARE rejected Luque Lecaro's request for refuge.
The case is covered by the secrecy provided by the refugee law, therefore it could not be established if the man is still here or left.
On January 16, intelligence and the Ecuadorian police, at the behest of Lasso himself, set out to search for this man.
As reported by the newspaper El Universo, Luque Lecaro,
he is involved in some audios that were released to the press and in which he is heard wanting to receive US $ 150,000 and that he was going to open an account in Andorra.
A certain Rubén Chérrez is also mentioned, who claims to be a friend and operator of President Lasso's brother-in-law.
The audios would be part of the corruption plot about public companies that affects officials and former officials like Luque, including Lasso's businessman brother-in-law, Danilo Carrera.
It is from Ecuador that he should have requested asylum through the Foreign Ministry, that is, the embassy, as was done at the time with Duarte Pesantes.
But there is no request for asylum.
According to the Ecuadorian press, Luque Lecaro was president of EMCO between July 2021 and December 2022. He is an expert in Finance and business administration who reached high positions in the business sector and in private banking.
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