Arrest in Manabí

Ecuadorian police detained Luisa González early on Thursday, 22 October 2026, according to EL PAÍS, which places the arrest in Canuto, a rural area of Chone in Manabí province where she lives. BBC, citing the Efe news agency, reported that the operation was carried out by agents sent from Quito, the capital. Bloomberg said she was detained at her home. González, a lawyer and figure in the Revolución Ciudadana movement linked to former president Rafael Correa, lost the 2023 presidential runoff to President Daniel Noboa and was again his rival in the 2025 election. Her party confirmed the detention, which came a few weeks before local elections.

The money laundering probe

Prosecutors said arrest warrants were carried out in Pichincha and Manabí against three people suspected of money laundering, without naming them. Deutsche Welle reported that the initials prosecutors published for one of the detained match González's name, and that prosecutors did not say whether this was the investigation opened in January or a new one. The probe concerns possible irregularities in political financing and advertising spending during the 2023 campaign, as well as the legal origin of the resources. Investigators raided González's home and other properties in several provinces in January 2026 to collect documents and electronic devices. The case also examines a possible inflow of cash from Venezuela into her campaign and that of Andrés Arauz, who is included in the process. ANSA reported that she has denied receiving money from the administration of then Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

Her denial and the party's response

González denies the allegations. According to BBC, she said her party handed electoral authorities all documentation of its 2023 campaign spending and that prosecutors have no evidence to support the accusations. EL PAÍS reports that she has said she was the candidate and did not manage the money. Revolución Ciudadana described the detention as arbitrary and demanded that authorities disclose where she is being held and allow her legal team access. The party argued that prosecutors had hastily built a criminal case around what it called an administrative discrepancy of 6,100 dollars in campaign accounts.

Political reaction and election context

Correa, who governed Ecuador from 2007 to 2017 and is now in exile in Belgium, protested the arrest on X.

“They arrested Luisa González. Enough! Ecuador will prevail.”

ANSA reported that the opposition accuses Noboa of intensifying political pressure on his rivals. Revolución Ciudadana was excluded from the November elections for mayors and prefects, according to ANSA, while DW reported that Correa himself had been barred from those elections. EL PAÍS places the arrest 38 days before the local elections scheduled for 29 November.