Testimony in two corruption cases reveals court manipulation, bribery; implicates Correa and Glas

Metastasis Case witnesses testified Wednesday and Thursday that key judicial officials and Rafael Correa discussed plans to overturn the convictions of the former president and former vice president Jorge Glas. In addition, the court was told of the ambitions of former national courts chief, Wilman Terán, to launch a presidential campaign from court offices.

Former president Rafael Correa

Meanwhile in a Miami court, a former executive of a Brazilian construction company testified he had delivered cash-filled envelopes to an advisor of Correa.

In the Metastasis Case, former Judicial Council member Xavier Muñoz said he spoke on several occasions with Correa about “controlling” cases and supporting council president Wilman Terán. Many of the conversations, according to Muñoz, concerned planning the annulment of convictions against Glas and Correa. “He [Correa] was very eager to return to Ecuador to resume control of the government,” Muñoz said.

To accomplish this, Muñoz testified, required the removal of Attorney General Diana Salazar from office. “She was the enemy, so this was the key to the entire plan,” he said. Muñoz, who was arrested for corruption but is cooperating with the prosecution, also said he overheard a number of conversations between Correa and Terán discussing plans for Terán’s presidential run with the Citizens Revolution movement.

Álex Palacios, one-time legal advisor to the Judiciary Council and Terán’s self-described “right-hand man,” testified that he delivered legal instructions to a judge to get Glas out of prison.

“He [Terán] and I drove to Santo Domingo where I handed off a flash drive with court documents to the attorney representing Glas’ habeas corpus appeal,” Palacios said. “The lawyer then delivered it to Emerson Curipallo, the judge who then ordered Glas’ release.” Before he delivered the flash drive, Terán told Palacios that the release was already “paid for and delivered.”

Curipallo was arrested in December in the Metastasis Case, charged with, among other things, accepting bribes through drug gang leader Leandro Norero, alias El Patron.

According to Palacios, once Terán became head of the national courts he insisted on using his position to launch a presidential campaign. “He had the support of Correa and wanted to build an election fund with payments extorted from court officials,” Palacios said. “He planned to demand kickbacks from law clerks of $5,000 to $10,000 for employment and believed he could build a fund of several hundred dollars that way.”

Palacios added: “Wilman Terán’s political project was to be elected president, with Correa’s blessing, and he wanted to use the judiciary office as his catapult,” Palacios said. “My instructions were to use all of the court’s resources and media apparatus to promote the plan.”

Palacios said that Correa had made it clear that Terán’s campaign hinged on overturning Correa’s and Glas’ convictions.

In the trial of former Ecuador comptroller Carlos Pólit in Miami, an executive of Brazilian construction company Odebrecht claimed he paid bribes to an advisor of former president Rafael Correa.

Geraldo de Souza said he delivered envelopes containing thousands of dollars in cash to Pamela Martínez, Correa’s chief assistant in 2013. De Souza admits to handing out as much as three billion dollars in bribes to officials in dozens of countries to facilitate Odebrecht contracts over a 10-year period.

Pólit, who served as Ecuador comptroller in the Correa government from 2007 to 2015, was sentenced to six years in prison for accepting bribes but fled to Miami to avoid prison. He was arrested in the U.S. in 2022 on money laundering charges. In total, de Souza says he paid Pólit $6 million for Odebrecht projects.