The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, released this Saturday the first prison images of José Serrano, former Minister of the Interior during the socialist government of Rafael Correa, who was deported from the United States and is now held in the maximum-security prison El Encuentro while the case investigating him as an alleged mastermind behind the assassination of former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio progresses.
Serrano arrived in Ecuador on the night of Friday, August 28, after landing shortly after 11:00 PM at José Joaquín de Olmedo airport in Guayaquil. Hours later, under a heavy police operation, he was transferred to the prison located in Santa Elena, where the former correísta vice president Jorge Glas is also detained.
Noboa publicly confirmed the former official's entry into prison with a photograph showing Serrano inside a cell dressed in the orange uniform of the penitentiary system. The president accompanied the post with a single word: “Done”.
Previously, the Ecuadorian president had celebrated the transfer with a message directed directly at correísmo. “We said it, we did it. José Serrano, Correa's Minister of the Interior, a new guest at El Encuentro. It's your turn next”, wrote Noboa, in an explicit reference to former president Rafael Correa.
The Minister of the Interior, John Reimberg, also highlighted the detention and assured that someone who was considered “untouchable” ended up confined in El Encuentro, while emphasizing that no one is above the law in Ecuador.
José Serrano, presumed indirect author of the murder of former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio
The Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office included Serrano among the seven charged with the murder of Villavicencio, who was shot dead on August 9, 2023, in Quito, just eleven days before the first round of the extraordinary presidential elections.
According to the prosecutors' hypothesis, Serrano and the other defendants allegedly participated as indirect authors of the crime, while the actual execution was carried out by Colombian hitmen. The case file also includes former correísta assembly member Ronny Aleaga, businessmen Xavier Jordán and Daniel Salcedo, and three leaders of the criminal organization Los Lobos.
Serrano's arrival was through a deportation ordered by U.S. authorities, and not through the extradition process initially requested by Ecuador. The former minister had been detained by immigration authorities since 2025 after exceeding his authorized stay in the United States.
José Serrano, alleged mastermind behind the assassination of former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio
Serrano denies the accusations and any involvement in the murder. His daughter, Paulina Serrano, also questioned the legality of the deportation and denounced an alleged political persecution.
The Villavicencio case has already led to the conviction of five people to sentences of up to 34 years in prison as material authors, while the Ecuadorian Justice continues to advance against those identified as intellectual authors of the crime.
