A Dammed Dynasty: The Fall of Lenín Moreno

In Ecuador, the transition from the presidential palace to house arrest has become a well-worn career path. Lenín Moreno is merely the latest chief executive to follow it. At 73, the former president will serve a five-year sentence confined to his residence due to his age and disability, following a ruling by a Quito court that found him and 19 others guilty of bribery connected to a massive hydroelectric project. He now stands as the third leader in the country's recent history to swap state honours for a criminal record.

The mechanics of the deal were as familiar as they were lucrative. Sinohydro, a state-owned enterprise from China, secured the construction contract for the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric dam. To keep the deal moving, prosecutors established that the Chinese firm routed $76.1 million through a network of shell companies. While Moreno himself reportedly took a relatively minor share, his household fared considerably better. His wife, daughter, and brother were all convicted alongside him, sharing the dock with former plant managers, Sinohydro representatives, and a former Chinese ambassador to Ecuador.

Beyond the loss of mobility, the financial reckoning is steep. The court ordered those convicted to pay back three times the amount received in bribes, while Moreno has been permanently barred from holding public office. Facing these penalties, the former president, who governed from 2017 to 2021, has insisted on his innocence and announced plans to appeal.

Moreno’s defense rests on an old political tradition: blaming the previous administration. He served as vice president under Rafael Correa, who signed off on the original dam agreement before himself receiving an eight-year bribery sentence in 2020. Moreno maintains that upon taking the presidency in 2017, he actually launched investigations into the project's mounting technical flaws. Cracks in the dam's structure eventually led the Ecuadorian government to initiate legal proceedings against Sinohydro in 2021, culminating in a $400 million settlement with the firm's parent owner earlier this year.

Yet the court found the paper trail connecting his family to shell company payouts impossible to ignore. The affair offers a stark case study in state-led infrastructure development, where opaque foreign contracts and heavy government involvement predictably produce cracked concrete and private windfalls. For the taxpayers of Ecuador, the return on investment remains depressingly familiar: flawed public utilities, expensive legal settlements, and another former president watching the world go by from his living room window.

Written by Sandy van Dongen sandy.vandongen@alpineweekly.com