The mayor of Ecuador’s largest port city was arrested Tuesday on money laundering and tax evasion charges, prosecutors in the South American country said, according to the Attorney General’s office and reporting to journalists. The detention of Aquiles Álvarez, mayor of Guayaquil, was announced in a social media post from Ecuador’s Attorney General’s office, which also said it had carried out additional detentions tied to the same case.
According to the Attorney General’s office, prosecutors detained 10 other people linked to the investigation, including Xavier, Álvarez’s brother and the president of a popular soccer club. The Attorney General’s office also shared photos from a raid in Guayaquil, depicting laptops, phones and cash that officials said were confiscated by police during the operation.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Álvarez’s lawyer, Ramiro Garcia, said he had not been given a dossier of the case against the mayor. Garcia said, “This looks like a case of. political persecution,” characterizing the arrest as targeted.
Prosecutors and officials said the arrest also involved a court order connected to a separate investigation. Officials said that at the time of his detention, Álvarez was not wearing an ankle monitor that he had been ordered to use by a court investigating him for a different case involving the illegal sale of subsidized gasoline. Álvarez has denied corruption charges in that separate matter and has argued that both investigations amount to political persecution.
The case comes as Guayaquil remains central to Ecuador’s efforts to counter drug trafficking. With about 2 million people, Guayaquil lies near the Pacific Ocean and has been described as on the front lines of the country’s war against drug cartels. The reporting said Ecuador’s murder rate has quintupled since 2020, as cartels from Colombia, Mexico and elsewhere compete for control of ports used to ship cocaine to the United States.
In Guayaquil’s mayoral seat, Álvarez is a former business owner whose company owns gas stations and distributes gasoline in the city. He was elected for a four-year term in 2023 and belongs to the Citizen’s Revolution party, which is headed by exiled former President Rafael Correa.
Officials said Guayaquil’s location—along an estuary that leads to the Pacific—makes it a mayor shipping point for exports including bananas, rice and shrimp. That logistical importance has placed the port city at the center of security concerns, including investigations that prosecutors say now involve money laundering and tax evasion charges for its mayor.