Former Manta Mayor Arrested in Panama for Drug Trafficking Appears on Ecuador's Electoral Ballot
Jaime Estrada Bonilla, arrested in Panama and investigated by the United States, appears as a candidate in Ecuador's local elections on 29 November.
Candidate Detained for Drug Trafficking Approved for 29 November Elections
The former mayor of Manta (2009–2014), Jaime Estrada Bonilla, detained in Panama as part of US investigations into alleged drug trafficking, appears on the ballot for Ecuador's local elections on 29 November, according to infobae.com.
The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), José Cabrera, confirmed that the institution qualified Estrada's candidacy before his detention and that the ballots are already in the printing process. "We will see what comes next," said Cabrera, who specified that the CNE only knows "through the media that he is detained outside the country, nothing more".
In early November, Estrada Bonilla and his son Jaime Estrada Medranda, a former assemblyman linked to correísmo, were arrested in Panama as part of an international operation. In the same operation, Jacobo Bucaram, son of former president Abdalá Bucaram (1996–1997), was detained in Guayaquil, as well as Geovanny Antonio Fernández Menéndez and William José Briones López.
The five detainees are wanted by US justice for alleged drug-trafficking-related offences, according to Ecuador's Interior Minister, John Reimberg. The operation was coordinated between Ecuador and Panama with the participation of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the US Government, and Interpol.
The CNE, which had planned to announce the names of the final qualified candidates on Monday, postponed the release of the list until Wednesday 11 November. The body justified the delay by the death of a substitute candidate in the province of Guayas. "He has already been replaced," said Cabrera.
On 29 November, Ecuadorians will elect 23 provincial prefects and vice-prefects, 222 mayors, 909 urban councillors and 457 rural councillors, as well as the seven members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS). The elections, which were initially scheduled for February 2027, were brought forward due to the risk that rainfall associated with the El Niño phenomenon would affect the normal conduct of the electoral process.
The Citizen Revolution (RC) movement, the main opposition group to the Government and led by former president Rafael Correa (2007–2017), will not participate in these elections. The group is temporarily suspended pending a judicial investigation related to the financing of the 2023 presidential campaign, although some of its members have stood as candidates under other political parties.
In connection with that same investigation, correísta former presidential candidate Luisa González is held in preventive detention. She lost to President Noboa in the second round in both 2023 and 2025, and is being investigated for alleged money laundering. González, who has declared herself a victim of "political persecution", is awaiting a judicial decision on the habeas corpus appeal filed by her defence. The corresponding hearing was scheduled to resume on Monday.
Source: Google News EC — Crime