Ecuador’s former president sentenced to 5 years for corruption

An Ecuadoran court on Friday convicted ex-president Lenin Moreno of accepting bribes from a Chinese company that built the country’s biggest hydroelectric dam.

The Attorney General’s office said that Moreno, who governed from 2017 to 2021, was among four people convicted in the case involving the construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair dam by China’s Sinohydro.

Moreno was vice-president under socialist president Rafael Correa at the time of the alleged corruption, between 2007 and 2013.

He succeeded Correa, with the latter’s backing, but later fell out with his mentor by shifting to the right and aligning himself more closely with the US.

The court in Quito has not yet sentenced him.

Moreno remains free pending his sentencing.

Prosecutors have asked for him to receive a six-and-a-half-year prison term.

The 73-year-old paraplegic, who served as the UN special envoy on disability issues, insisted Friday after the ruling that he had never received “a single cent” from Sinohydro.

He blamed the case on “the Correa regime,” saying his former-backer-turned-rival, who has also been convicted of corruption but is exiled in Belgium, “promised to take revenge on me.”

Prosecutors say Sinohydro paid bribes totaling US$76 million, around four percent of the cost of the hydroelectric project.

Three other Ecuadoran nationals were convicted alongside Moreno, including two former managers of the power plant.

Around 20 people have been implicated in the case in total, including Moreno’s wife, his daughter, businesspeople, and a former Chinese ambassador to Quito.