Journalists Seek Asylum in Canada After Threats to Their Lives in Ecuador
Monica Velazquez (L) and Andersson Boscan (R), Sept. 10, 2024. X/ @lavozderiobamba
September 11, 2024 Hour: 10:47 am
Threats against them increased after revealing a corruption network led by former President Lasso’s brother-in-law.
Journalists Andersson Boscan and Monica Velasquez, who work for the digital media outlet La Posta, have sought asylum in Canada, claiming their lives are in danger in Ecuador due to death threats and plans to murder them orchestrated by “corrupt police officers.”
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In a video shared on social media on Tuesday, Boscan and Velasquez stated that they had been subjected to surveillance by the police, which was documented in an intelligence report that included instructions on where to kill them. This report was found in the hands of drug traffickers.
“The Police’s General Directorate of Intelligence conducted surveillance on our family, from the school our daughters attend, the routine of leaving our home, the routes and streets we took to work, the times we traveled, to the clear and precise instructions on where to murder us,” stated Boscan, director of La Posta.
“We submitted this as an official document to the Prosecutor’s Office, bearing its official state seals, but the Prosecutor’s Office has refused to investigate which corrupt officers followed our family and who were planning an attack,” he added, recalling that the threats against them have persisted for five years, forcing them to live in near isolation, rarely leaving their home.
They have now decided to leave the country because their daughters “deserve a real life, far from the constant paranoia of a potential assassination of their parents, in a country where sometimes you have to be more wary of the institutions meant to protect you than of the criminals themselves.”
Both journalists expressed gratitude for the support of various international organizations and institutions, such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF), and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Previously, Boscan and Velasquez had been outside Ecuador between July and October 2023, after also reporting an imminent risk of attack, shortly before the murder of journalist and presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
The threats against them intensified following the fallout from the publication of the ‘Gran Padrino’ case, where they uncovered an alleged corruption scheme in public companies led by businessman Danilo Carrera, the brother-in-law of then-president Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023).
The revelation of this case led to Lasso’s abrupt exit from power as the opposition pushed for an impeachment vote. Before the National Assembly could hold the final vote to oust him, Lasso chose to call for extraordinary general elections.
The ‘Gran Padrino’ case also had ties to drug trafficking, as La Posta revealed a network of companies connected to one of those implicated in the scheme, a close friend of Carrera, who had business dealings with the leader of the Albanian mafia in Ecuador, responsible for shipping large quantities of cocaine to Europe.
teleSUR/ JF Sources: EFE – La Posta
