Ecuadoran former presidential candidate Gonzalez arrested: police

Ecuadoran police said Thursday they had arrested former left-wing presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez, who is under investigation for alleged illegal financing of her failed 2023 election campaign. Authorities did not say whether Gonzalez’s arrest was related to claims that she accepted funds from Venezuela for the first of her two unsuccessful presidential runs.

The public prosecutor’s office said on X that it would bring charges against three people “for their alleged participation in the crime of #MoneyLaundering” and gave the initials of the detainees, including L.M.G.A. Gonzalez’s full name is Luisa Magdalena Gonzalez Alcivar. The prosecutor’s office added that it was “investigating alleged irregularities in political financing and campaign spending on advertising during the 2023 presidential campaign, due to inconsistencies in the contributions and the legal origin of the funds.” A lawyer and protege of former left-wing president Rafael Correa, Gonzalez lost to right-wing President Daniel Noboa in both the 2023 and 2025 presidential elections.

She has denied receiving funding from the administration of Venezuela’s then-leader Nicolas Maduro. Correa, a sworn foe of the Ecuadoran right who was in power from 2007 to 2017 and is now in exile in Belgium, condemned Gonzalez’s arrest on X. “Luisa Gonzalez has been arrested.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!” he wrote. Gonzalez is a leading member of the Correa-aligned Citizen Revolution Movement. The party has been barred from participating in mayoral and prefectural elections to be held in November.

Noboa is one of US President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Washington’s war on Latin American drug traffickers. He has cracked down on the opposition since winning reelection last year.