The Ecuadorian justice dealt the first judicial blow against the mayor of Guayaquil, Aquiles Álvarez. A court sentenced him this Monday to three years in prison for failing to comply with a judicial decision: he did not wear the electronic ankle monitor that he was supposed to use as a precautionary measure in the Triple A case, the Prosecutor’s Office investigation for alleged illegal fuel marketing. The judges imposed the maximum penalty provided for this crime, a fine of 4,800 dollars, and the obligation to offer public apologies.
Read more Leagues Cup 2026: schedule, times, and where to watch the group stage matches
The sentence comes at a time of strong judicial tension between the Government and one of President Daniel Noboa’s main opponents. Álvarez faces three criminal proceedings; this is the first that ends with a conviction.
The episode that originated the case occurred in the early hours of February 10, when prosecutors and police raided the mayor’s house in Guayaquil to look for evidence of an investigation for alleged organized crime — later reclassified as money laundering — dubbed by the Prosecutor’s Office as Goleada. During the raid, Álvarez was not wearing the electronic monitoring device.
The defense has argued that the ankle monitor was not working. Julio César Cueva, the mayor’s lawyer, states that the experts from the National Service for Comprehensive Care of Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), in charge of electronic monitoring, acknowledged the equipment’s failures during the trial. “The mayor did not remove the ankle monitor; the ankle monitor was not working. It came off because it was missing a screw,” he said. According to Cueva, in the videos shown at the hearing, the technicians explained that SNAI devices are often repaired with damaged parts, held together with adhesive tape, silicone, or improvised pins.
The Prosecutor’s Office argued that Álvarez deliberately tampered with the device, but the court dismissed that accusation due to lack of evidence. Even so, it considered that he acted with intent by remaining without the monitoring equipment. “He knew he was obliged to wear the device and was aware of the prohibition to tamper with or remove it unilaterally,” the presiding judge said when reading the sentence. “Any inconvenience should have been reported to the competent authority; however, he consciously remained without the equipment.”
Cueva insists that the problem was structural. According to his version, the first ankle monitor was replaced because it issued constant alerts, but the new device presented even more serious faults: it registered about 2,700 alarms which, he explained, did not correspond to breaches but to signal losses from a system that operates with outdated technology. For the lawyer, the speed with which the cases against Álvarez are advancing reveals a political motivation behind the proceedings.
Read more Youth Building the Future: how to apply and amount of support
The judicial offensive began in July 2024, when the Prosecutor’s Office opened the Triple A case for the alleged irregular marketing of fuels through a company linked to the mayor. The trial has already concluded the argument phase and the court must issue a sentence in the coming days.
The defense has also denounced irregularities in that file, including the disappearance of an official from the Hydrocarbons Regulation and Control Agency who initiated the complaint. According to Álvarez’s lawyers, the official declared having received pressure to prepare the report linking him to the alleged crime, and did not appear before the court again.
From that investigation arose a second case for organized crime, later reclassified as money laundering. For this process, Álvarez remains detained in Encuentro, the maximum-security prison inaugurated by the Noboa Government, where he has reported mistreatment and harassment.
The conviction opens a new chapter in the confrontation between the Government and the mayor of Ecuador’s most populous city. Álvarez can appeal the ruling, which in any case makes him the first mayor of Guayaquil to be criminally convicted while in office and casts doubt on the future of a figure who, until a few months ago, led the municipal opposition to the Executive.
Read more The Prosecutor’s Office arrests 13 people for embezzling 3 trillion pesos in royalties
