The mayor of Ecuador’s largest port arrested on money laundering and tax evasion charges

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — The mayor of Ecuador’s largest port city was arrested Tuesday on charges of money laundering and tax evasion, prosecutors in the South American country said.

In a social media post, Ecuador’s Attorney General’s office said it detained an additional 10 people linked to the case, including mayor Aquiles Álvarez’s brother Xavier, who is the president of a popular soccer club.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Álvarez’s lawyer Ramiro Garcia said he had not been given a dossier of the case against the mayor. “This looks like a case of. political persecution” Garcia said.

The Attorney General’s office shared photos of a raid in Guayaquil, depicting laptops, phones and wads of cash that were confiscated by police.

Officials said that at the time of his detention, Alvarez was not wearing an ankle monitor that he had been ordered to use by a court that is investigating the mayor for a separate case, involving the illegal sale of subsidized gasoline. Álvarez has denied corruption charges against him, arguing they amount to political persecution.

Álvarez is a former business owner whose company owns gas stations and distributes gasoline in Guayaquil. He was elected for a four-year term in 2023.

The 41-year-old politician is a member of the Citizen’s Revolution party headed by exiled former President Rafael Correa.

With about 2 million people, and a strategic location near the Pacific Ocean, Guayaquil has been on the front lines of Ecuador’s war against drug cartels.

The once peaceful South American nation, home to the Galapagos islands, has seen its murder rate quintuple since 2020, as drug cartels from Colombia, Mexico and further afield fight for control of the nation’s ports, which they have been using to ship cocaine to the United States.

Guayaquil is located along an estuary that leads to the Pacific Ocean and is a mayor shipping point for exports like bananas, rice and shrimp.