Lawyer offered bribes to free drug trafficker and throw out Correa’s convictions, judge testifies

Former Manabí criminal court judge Joffre Rivera said Wednesday he was offered money in exchange for releasing gang leader Leandro Norero, alias El Patron, from prison. Testifying in the Plaga Case, Rivera also said that Cristian Romero, Norero’s attorney, also pressured him to issue rulings allowing former president Rafael Correa to return to Ecuador.

Former president Rafael Correa

Rivera, who was arrested for accepting bribes in other cases and is a protected witness in the Plaga case, says Romero promised to “clean” Rivera’s record of judicial misconduct in an unrelated case. Romero, who was also the attorney for former vice president Jorge Glas, was indicted in the Plaga Case but fled the country before he could be arrested.

In his testimony, Rivera described meetings with other judges and attorneys who accepted payment from criminal gangs in exchange for legal favors for imprisoned gang members. In one case, former judge Marcos Montero, assigned to the Bahía de Caráquez prison, encouraged Rivera to “cooperate” with Lenin Vimos “to facilitate precautionary measures in favor of people deprived of liberty.”

Vimos, identified by prosecutors as a “ringleader” in the Plaga Case, was the central figure in Tuesday’s testimony by former Turi prison director Xavier Raúl Armijos. Vimos, who is awaiting trial, was described by Armijos as the man who paid judges for favorable rulings for gang member convicts.

In his Wednesday testimony, Rivera said that Romero presented him with prepared legal documents to allow Correa’s two corruption convictions to be appealed and overturned. “He [Romero] said all I had to do was go to court and file the petitions,” Rivera said. He added that Romero told him that the president of the Council of the Judiciary, Wilman Terán, was aware of the plan which would have allowed Correa’s return from exile in Belgium to participate in the 2023 cross death election.

Terán was subsequently arrested on other corruption charges and is awaiting trial.

According to Rivera, legal efforts on Correa’s behalf were “blown up” when journalist Carlos Vera described it on two social media sites in July 2023, claiming that a $100,000 bribe would be paid if successful. “Someone heard about the plan, obviously, and leaked the details to him [Vera],” Rivera testified. “At that point, the plan was dropped.”

Rivera said he did not know it Correa was personally aware of the effort.

In a statement to prosecutors following his arrest, Rivera described an elaborate plat to annul Correa’s convictions and allow him to return to the country. According to the statement, the plan was developed by Terán and involved discrediting and dismissing Attorney General Diana Salazar.