Ecuador’s Public Prosecutor’s Office this week launched an investigation into leftist lawmaker Joseph Santiago Díaz for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl, local outlets reported.
The probe began after the unnamed father of the child said that Díaz raped the child after he took advantage of the trust the lawmaker enjoyed from the girl’s mother and aunt. According to local outlets, the incident allegedly occurred two months ago, before Díaz was sworn in as lawmaker.
The newspaper El Comercio reported that the father told police the girl’s mother works for Díaz and that the lawmaker allegedly took the child to a party in which liquor was served. Ecuadorian law prohibits the publication of the names and images of minors who have been victims of abuse.
The lawmaker reportedly rejected the accusations and attributed it to a purported “troll center” allegedly run by the Ecuadorian government. The lawmaker took an unpaid leave of absence to work on his legal defense on Wednesday.
Díaz is a now-expelled member of the establishment socialist Citizens’ Revolution party, led by former president and fugitive convicted felon Rafael Correa, who presently lives in Belgium avoiding an in absentia corruption conviction. According to the Ecuadorian magazine Vistazo, Díaz formed part of Correa’s inner circle as early as 2006, when Correa was running for president, and occupied several government positions throughout his administration. Soledad Padilla, a woman who served as then-Vice President Jorge Glass’ assistant until she denounced Glass for harassment, asserted to local outlets that Díaz was “not just another assembly member, as they are now trying to make us believe. He was a man who enjoyed the absolute trust of former President Rafael Correa.”
Verónica Sarauz, the widow of assassinated presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, denounced on Wednesday that Díaz served as an intelligence official and was present when her home was raided in 2013. Sarauz described Díaz as one of several “undesirables” who attacked and persecuted critics of Correa’s government. Villavicencio, a journalist, was a vocal critic of Correa and suffered years of persecution by the then-ruling socialists. Villavicencio’s journalistic investigation was instrumental in Correa’s corruption conviction.
Díaz replaced leftist lawmaker Priscila Schettini in May after she was sanctioned and suspended by local electoral authorities for inflicting “gender-based political violence” against Ecuadorian Attorney General Diana Salazar.
As part of the probe, Ecuadorian prosecutors and police officers raided Díaz’s home in the capital city of Quito on Wednesday and seized documents, electronic devices, and other objects. A spokesperson from the Public Prosecutor’s Office told the Associated Press that Díaz “has not been apprehended” but was summoned to give his version of events.
The Citizens’ Revolution party responded to the accusations by expelling Díaz from its ranks and expressing the party’s “strongest repudiation, indignation, and moral condemnation of an act that, if confirmed, constitutes one of the most despicable crimes that can be committed.”
The investigation also comes days after Díaz presented a proposal to reform Ecuador’s Penal Code and lower the age of consent in Ecuador from 18 down to 14 years. Current Ecuadorian penal law reportedly deems any alleged consent given by a minor as “irrelevant” when processing sexual crimes.
According to the Ecuadorian outlet Priminicias, Díaz argued that teenagers aged 14 and up have the “capacity to consent to a sexual relationship” and specifically proposed that, “in sexual crimes, consent given by a victim under the age of eighteen is irrelevant, except in cases of persons over the age of fourteen who are capable of consenting to a sexual relationship.”
The proposal, which is yet to be reviewed by Congress, was reportedly backed with the signatures of ten Citizens’ Revolution lawmakers — four of which rescinded their pledge on Wednesday afternoon.
A group of lawmakers from the ruling National Democratic Action (ADN), led by President Daniel Noboa, presented themselves at the headquarters of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and urged the institution to take action to prevent Díaz from fleeing Ecuador, as his former boss Correa had done.
“Everyone is fleeing, everyone is running away, and from the outside they are brave enough to speak out,” ADN lawmaker Ferdinan Álvarez told reporters.
According to Primicias, Citizens’ Revolution sources claim that the party does not know where Díaz is after he requested the unpaid leave of absence. Lawmaker Jahiren Noriega asserted to the outlet that she is “personally unaware” of any information regarding Díaz’s whereabouts.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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