QUITO, Feb 15 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Ecuador’s Minister of Agriculture, Bernardo Manzano, tendered his resignation Tuesday after being mentioned in the investigation into alleged corruption and links to drug trafficking involving people close to President Guillermo Lasso.
Manzano’s departure takes place a few hours after admitting, before the microphones of the local radio station Radio Sonorama, that he delivered his resume to Rubén Cherrez, related to Danilo Carrera, the president’s brother-in-law and alleged leader of a corruption network.
According to the complaints published the day before by the digital media La Posta, Carrera managed public positions through an emissary, while Cherrez is being investigated for his relation to an Albanian accused of drug trafficking.
Although Manzano said he is not friends with Cherrez, he claimed to have met him at a social gathering in July 2021 and admitted that he sent him his resume.
However, in his resignation letter, the until now head of Agriculture described it as false that his arrival was due to a person outside the administration, but considered it prudent “to step aside and prevent this unfortunate coincidence from being used to harm the government’.
Manzano, who served less than a year in the job, is the fifth senior official in Lasso’s cabinet to ask for his resignation in less than a week.
This Monday, an Ecuadorian intelligence report, brought to light by La Posta, revealed the alleged links of the Ecuadorian president with the Albanian mafia and drug trafficking, a situation that, according to several analysts, could bring forward the end of his mandate in Ecuador.
All this scandal further weakens the Government, which suffered an electoral setback on Feb 5, as the citizens rejected the questions of their constitutional referendum and favored candidates of a progressive trend for mayors and prefectures.
Meanwhile, various voices call for the resignation of President Lasso, his impeachment, the recall or the so-called cross death as legal ways to end his mandate and anticipate elections. — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
