The trial before Ecuador's highest court began in February 2020, and some Ecuadorians celebrated the verdict on 7 April as a victory for an unbiased and fair justice system over corrupt, powerful politicians. 

For others, however, the proceedings were a corrupt manoeuvre from the current unpopular government to prevent Correa from returning to politics and taking part in presidential and legislative elections set for February 2021. The judgment was perceived as an attack on Ecuador's democracy. 

Was this a trial of politicians, or a politicised trial? 

ACCUSATIONS AND EXILE

Correa took office in 2007, as a surge of left-wing presidents were elected in Latin America, including Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

His decade-long term ended in 2017, when former vice president Lenìn Moreno succeeded him as the head of the Country Alliance Party (previously known as Alianza pais) and became president.

The relationship between Moreno and Correa soured soon after Moreno’s inauguration, when Jorge Glas was found guilty in December 2017 of taking a bribe from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction firm involved in numerous, high-profile corruption cases across Latin America.

The following year, Correa faced allegations of masterminding the 2012 kidnapping of political opponent Fernando Balda. The Ecuador National Court of Justice requested the extradition of the former president to face trial, however, Mr Correa has been allowed to stay in Belgium thus far, where he has lived in self-exile since the end of his last presidential term. Correa denies any involvement in the abduction, but has since been considered a fugitive by the Ecuadorian courts.

In 2019, an investigation revealed a scheme to funnel payoffs from companies into the campaign coffers of Correa’s political party, Alianza pais.

The three-month trial ended on 7 April 2020, and Correa was found guilty, sentenced to eight years in prison, and banned from holding public office for 25 years.

The trial was held in absentia, as Correa was not at any of the hearings.

Correa, who said that he felt compelled to “take the fatherland back” and run for office in 2021, sees this as a political witch hunt.

The former president, who has repeatedly denied the charges, claims to be a victim of political persecution. He claims the real purpose of the trial is to prevent him and his allies from participating in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. 

MULTITIER CRIMINAL STRUCTURE 

The Ecuador National Court of Justice convicted Correa and 19 other senior officials, including Glas, of having accepted $8 million in bribes from companies seeking government contracts and then using the funds for political campaigns from 2012 to 2016.

During the trial, the prosecution accused Correa of building a multitier criminal structure to collect bribes without leaders having to directly ask for them. Correa’s method was compared to Pablo Escobar, the infamous Columbian drug lord who never delivered cocaine personally, but set up a smuggling network to do the work instead.

The court ruled that the prosecution had successfully proven how a multimillion-dollar bribery operation was orchestrated, and that Correa was aware of these illegal payments. 

Correa would now be subject to arrest were he to return to Ecuador. 

His involvement in the case was triggered when authorities uncovered a $6,000 payment made to his private account from a former Constitutional Court judge. He claims it was a personal loan. The former judge later told the court that Correa had asked her to confirm that she destroyed incriminating evidence. 

 FAR-REACHING CONSEQUENCES  

Correa has often used social media to communicate with his followers, vocally and aggressively commenting on and criticising the case. He reacted to the court’s decision on Twitter, claiming that he has been the subject of “the worst and fiercest political persecution in the region”, that the judges had lied, and that “this was what [the current government] was looking for: manipulating justice to achieve what they never could at the ballot box”.

Indeed, for Correa, the ruling is not just an eight-year prison sentence, it is also a 25-year ban on holding a political office.

And following a referendum organised by the Moreno administration, under Ecuador’s constitution, anyone convicted of bribery cannot stand for election, possibly ending Correa’s political aspirations.   

For his followers, this is yet another manipulation of the justice system to prosecute opponents. This method has often been used in Latin America, a region that has struggled to develop a judiciary free of corruption, inefficiency, and political interference. So much so that the tactic has its own name: “Lawfare”.

There are even rumours that the judge and those involved in the prosecutor's office could be criminally tried for perverting the course of justice. On April 6, the a day ahead of the court’s verdict, e-mails containing a draft of the final sentence were allegedly exchanged between the Prosecutor General's secretary and one of the judges presiding over the case. 

CONTRASTING LEGACIES

Correa enjoys a high degree of popularity in Ecuador. He presided over the country during a period of economic growth, thanks to the rise in oil prices and loans from China, and earned the loyalty of millions of poor Ecuadoreans with his charisma as well as his spending on infrastructure and large-scale social welfare programmes.

He was nonetheless accused of abusing his power through press suppression, controlling members of the senior judiciary, firing others arbitrarily through the Judiciary Council, and using the “Superintendancy of Information and Communication” agency (SUPERCOM) to control the media, harassing and sanctioning independent media outlets.

In contrast, Lenín Moreno has focused his presidency on ending corruption, repairing and strengthening the democratic institutions that were greatly damaged following Correa’s decade in power. Moreno went after corrupt members of Correa’s government and worked to restore the independence of the press and judiciary, setting up an independent panel to review the judiciary and abolishing SUPERCOM, which reinstated freedom of speech.

His program of austerity, however, has proven unpopular. His attempt to end fuel subsidies was disastrous, causing massive protests in October 2019 and forcing him to abandon the policy. With the poor state of the economy, gross mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis, and major backslides around social policy, Moreno’s approval rating is now less than 20%. 

WHAT COMES NEXT?

It seems likely that Correa will try to exhaust the appeal process, as he has two opportunities to appeal the charges.

His former legal secretary, Alexis Mera, who was among those sentenced by the high court, claimed his conviction is “full of lies” and already declared that he will be appealing.  

Correa also hinted on social media that he will be taking the matter to international institutions.

While he could not have run for presidency again regardless of the trial’s outcome, as Moreno’s referendum also abolished unlimited presidential terms, Correa was likely to seek a role in future local or congressional elections and was planning to play a big role in the presidential and legislative elections. The decision will be a road block to those plans.

Nonetheless, the former president may still be holding out hope for becoming a kingmaker, backing a presidential candidate and using his popularity to ensure their electoral success. If they succeed Moreno, Correa could then count on a presidential pardon, escaping the negative legal consequences of unfavourable judicial decisions. 

THE NEED FOR STABILITY

Within what appears as political and judicial chaos, Ecuador desperately needs political consistency. According to Human Rights Watch, the country faces chronic human rights challenges, including weak institutions, poor prison conditions, laws that give authorities broad powers to limit judicial independence, violence against women, far-reaching restrictions on access to reproductive healthcare for women and girls, and a disregard for indigenous rights. Hopefully Ecuador's trial of the century will conclude by bringing the country much needed political stability.

Amany is an aspiring Immigration and Human Rights barrister. She recently graduated from the University of Leicester with First class Honours and is now taking a gap year to gain some work experience and save up for her Masters and Bar course.

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