Ecuador in final stretch to the elections, leaked videos hurts Alianza Pais party

The OPEC nation of Ecuador is seen as third-most corrupt in South America, ahead of only Venezuela and Paraguay, in Transparency International’s latest annual ranking of corruption perceptions worldwide.

fox news/ap In one of the videos, Oil Minister Carlos Pareja is seen taking a lie detector test in which he affirms all decisions at Petroecuador were made with the consent of Vice President Jorge Glas. The videos were posted Friday on social media by an anonymous user going by the name “Capaya Leaks” in reference to Pareja’s nickname.

Glas is running again as vice president on a ticket backed by retiring President Rafael Correa in a closely contested election Feb. 19.

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In a frenzy of tweets on Friday, Correa accused Pareja of fleeing justice and working with an opposition Ecuadorean banker in Miami to derail the campaign of his hand-picked successor, Lenin Moreno, who tops the Alianza Pais ticket that also includes Glas. He published a chain of emails between him and Pareja from October, after the corruption scandal broke, in which the former ally begs for forgiveness without admitting to any wrongdoing.

“Not a single question about the money he stole,” Correa said on Twitter, in allusion to the video. “He begs for forgiveness and then sells himself.”

Several officials linked to Petroecuador have been arrested as part of the scandal, accused of taking some $12 million in bribes for the construction of an oil refinery. Pareja is among those accused of profiting from graft and has so far refused to return to Ecuador to face charges. Read Article