The historical paradox was verified on August 28, 2026: Lenín Moreno went from being the architect of the return of neoliberalism to Ecuador, who instituted the most implacable political persecution against his former colleague Rafael Correa, to being sentenced for bribery in the government of Daniel Noboa, by the National Court of Justice, formed and installed with spurious procedures to guarantee the impunity of the political right and be part of the apparatus contaminated by criminal gangs.

It should not be forgotten that Noboa came to the Presidency in 2023 under the auspices of Moreno’s party, MOVER, list 35, when he left behind the original name Alianza PAIS, with which they came to power together with Correa in 2007 and 2009.

Although the ruling is from the first instance and can be appealed, according to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court’s decision, a corruption network operated around the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project, moving approximately $76.1 million in improper payments, nearly 4% of the contract value. This network was established in 2013, when Moreno was Vice President of the Republic, and involved companies, intermediaries, transfers, and sham consulting services. To support its accusation, the Prosecutor’s Office presented 29 testimonies, 20 expert reports, and 90 pieces of documentary evidence.

The sentence even imposed reparations that, added together, exceed $163 million, but it does not explain how this judicial obligation should be fulfilled, nor who is responsible for assuming these costs, whether it is only the Chinese contracting company or the beneficiaries of the bribes.

Moreno’s defense argued that he did not sign any contracts and that all of that was the responsibility of Rafael Correa and Jorge Glas, his former vice president in 2017. However, the court determined that the now-convicted man used his position as the second-highest-ranking official in the country to favor dealings related to Coca Codo Sinclair and linked this action to economic benefits received by members of his family: his wife, his daughter, and his two brothers, who received a two-year sentence for being accomplices and accessories after the fact.

The ruling determined that Moreno’s first individual act, which went beyond simply holding a high-level position, occurred during the executive phase of the hydroelectric project, specifically regarding obtaining the loan from the Export-Import Bank of China. The key piece of evidence supporting this involvement came from the forensic computer report, which included a March 29, 2010 interview given by Moreno, in which he acknowledged that the former Chinese ambassador, Cai Runguo, “was a close friend and a good person” and that Runguo had requested meetings with him regarding the financing of Coca Codo Sinclair.

His wife, Rocío González Navas, found guilty as an accomplice to passive bribery, lent her personal and shell company accounts to indirectly receive financial benefits derived from the crime. His daughter, Irina, now residing in the U.S., also laundered money received by her father through fraudulent sales of paintings and other minor purchases. Meanwhile, his brother, Edwin Moreno Garcés, found guilty as an accomplice to bribery, received $217,000 without any justification, except that it was not linked to the former president and the money was allegedly used for personal expenses.

The judicial investigation only began in March 2019, during Moreno’s own administration, stemming from the INAPapers scandal. These were several journalistic reports detailing acts of corruption, which the Prosecutor’s Office itself allegedly leaked to certain journalists. In February 2023, the Prosecutor’s Office requested that charges be filed, and in March of that year, Moreno was indicted. In other words, the case spanned the administrations of Moreno, Guillermo Lasso, and Daniel Noboa.

Why is Moreno falling now?

After dismantling the Citizen Revolution’s political project, following his 2017 election victory and betrayal of its main leader, Rafael Correa Delgado, Moreno ceased to be politically indispensable. This was true not only for the Ecuadorian right wing (political parties, business leaders, media outlets, and journalists, supposedly affected by Correa’s policies), but also for his main supporter and protector, the United States, which abandoned him to his fate.

After dismantling the political project of the Citizen Revolution, after winning the 2017 elections and betraying its main leader, Rafael Correa Delgado, Moreno ceased to be politically indispensable.

Of course, to achieve this, he had to carry out one of the most egregious tasks in the diplomatic arena: removing Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London on April 11, 2019. Assange had received political asylum in 2012 and became a target of the United States following the WikiLeaks cable revelations. Various political figures close to Moreno and journalistic accounts have circulated the following hypothesis: Moreno had to comply with all the demands in exchange for keeping him out of the judicial investigation into the bribes he received, which were known before he took office as president in 2017.

A ruling by the Administrative Court of Pichincha also targeted Ecuadorian officials who carried out an “improper and illegal” process to grant Assange citizenship. At the same time, Moreno’s foreign minister, María Fernanda Espinosa, now a candidate for UN Secretary-General, was the one who provided an Ecuadorian passport to the WikiLeaks founder so he could attempt to leave the embassy in London and, allegedly, seek refuge in Moscow.

To cling to power after betraying his own political project, Moreno relied on several businessmen, including one who also received the same five-year sentence, Patiño recounted, also as a direct perpetrator. This businessman was in charge of negotiating all of the former president’s political dealings with his allies, many of whom are now silent, despite having benefited from his policies that reversed the Correa administration’s model.

That is why it is understood that the Prosecutor’s Office, led by Diana Salazar, whom Moreno appointed, kept the case on ice, even though Correa himself and some journalists denounced the existence of this corruption scheme, with the bank account numbers and the display of the checks with which certain purchases by the Moreno family were paid.

It should not be forgotten that Moreno was responsible for dismantling the political organization that brought him and Correa to power in 2017, Alianza PAIS (Patria Altiva i Soberana), a party that after 2017 would become known as MOVER and was the organization that supported Daniel Noboa’s first candidacy.

Upon leaving office in 2021, Moreno settled in Florida, supposedly because he had been invited to teach at a university and also because he had the support of the then Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, who appointed him as his personal delegate to address disability issues, placing him in Asunción, because there is no extradition treaty between Paraguay and Ecuador, since the trial against him had already begun in 2019.

Despite all that, the now-convicted man no longer represented political value for the right wing, much less was he a darling of the media. It’s important to remember that Moreno was responsible for dismantling the political organization that brought him and Correa to power in 2017, Alianza PAIS (Patria Altiva i Soberana), a party that, after 2017, would become MOVER and was the organization that supported Daniel Noboa’s first candidacy, leading him to the presidency in 2023.