Ecuador’s Justice Sentences Mayor and Singer Delfin Quishpe to 5 Years in Prison for Corruption Case

Ecuador’s justice system sentenced indigenous mayor Delfin Quishpe to five years in prison for a corruption case in the municipality of Guamote. Quishpe became a Youtube hit with a song about the attack on the Twin Towers in New York.
Quishpe and two other municipal officials were sentenced “to 5 years in prison” for “influence peddling in the context of the health emergency” due to the pandemic, the Prosecutor’s Office reported on its Twitter account.
The ruling also obliges those sentenced to ask for “public apologies in a local media and the publication of a plaque in the Municipality of Guamote, in which it is established that no acts of corruption will be committed in that jurisdiction.”
During the administration of Quishpe – who was elected mayor of Guamote in 2019 – purchases of biosecurity supplies were made with an overprice in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, which leaves in the country more than 523,000 cases and 33,112 deaths among a population of 17.7 million inhabitants.
The Prosecutor’s Office maintains that Quishpe paid the supplier of biosecurity elements $96,608, a price higher than estimated for the order.

Original source in Spanish