Court rejects annulment in Grillete case: Mayor Álvarez maintains three-year sentence
A court dismissed the annulment request in the Grillete case against Guayaquil mayor Aquiles Álvarez, who has now accumulated two sentences.
Court rejection of annulment consolidates sentence against Guayaquil mayor in Grillete case
A court rejected on 2 October the annulment request presented in the framework of the Grillete case against Guayaquil mayor Aquiles Álvarez, according to larepublica.ec. The request sought to invalidate the hearing in which the three-year prison sentence handed down against him was upheld on appeal.
The challenged ruling came from the Court of Appeal of the Court of Justice of Guayas, which on 16 September confirmed the sentence for failure to comply with a lawful order from a competent authority. That court was composed of judges Rosario Franco Jaramillo, Demóstenes Díaz Ruilova and Carmen Vázquez Rodríguez.
Origins of the Grillete case
The case originated from Álvarez's failure to comply with the obligation to wear an electronic monitoring device, a precautionary measure imposed on him in the framework of the Triple A case. The first-instance sentence, handed down on 3 August, established three years in prison, a fine equivalent to ten unified basic salaries, and symbolic reparation measures, including a public apology. Following the upheld sentence in September, the defence announced it would appeal to the cassation court.
Parallel sentence in the Triple A case
The rejection of the annulment adds to the accumulation of legal proceedings facing the mayor. In the Triple A case, Álvarez was sentenced on 29 August 2026 to six years and eight months in prison for illegal trafficking in hydrocarbons, in a proceeding related to fuel business operations linked to his family. That sentence is from first instance. His lawyer, Julio César Cueva, announced he would challenge the ruling once the written sentence was received and that he would first assess whether to present requests for clarification or amplification.
Goleada case still without sentence
The Goleada case is investigating alleged money laundering related to fuel companies and includes the mayor, relatives and other people from his business circle. Unlike Grillete and Triple A, this proceeding has no sentence against Álvarez: it remains in the evaluation and trial preparation phase, in which it must be determined whether the defendants are called to trial.
The proceedings have suffered suspensions and incidents concerning judicial competence. On 18 September, judge Ana Lucía Cevallos recused herself and returned the file to judge Sebastián Cornejo, considering that the hearing had already been opened under his jurisdiction. An update on 23 September scheduled the evaluation and trial preparation hearing between 27 and 30 October in Quito. In that same notice it was reported that the hearing on appeal of preventive detention, scheduled for 22 September, was not held because the designated court declared itself incompetent.
Return to prison following surgery
Parallel to the progress of the legal proceedings, Álvarez returned during the early morning hours of Tuesday 6 October to the El Encuentro prison in Santa Elena, after receiving medical discharge following hospitalisation at the Alcívar Clinic in Guayaquil. The mayor had been operated on for gallbladder removal on Friday 2 October.
His lawyer confirmed the transfer in an update released at 02:36 and explained that no exact time had been communicated for security and coordination reasons. According to Primicias, the return was ordered by the SNAI; at the time of transfer, Álvarez still presented slight post-operative pain.
Source: Google News EC — Guayaquil