Ecuador Politics: Vice president resigns amid corruption investigation

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02:48

In Ecuador, The country's vice president has been forced to resign amid a corruption investigation. Maria Alejandra Vicuna is the second vice president in the current government to have been removed from the job. CGTN's Dan Collyns reports from the capital Quito.

President Lenin Moreno promised what he called major surgery on corruption when he was elected last year.

Earlier this week, he suspended his Vice President Maria Alejandra Vicuna, who faces allegations she received kickbacks from a staff member between 2011 and 2013 when she was a lawmaker.

Addressing the nation, Moreno said he took the action so Vicuna could prepare her defense.

But now Vicuna has resigned. She denies wrongdoing. She says she received the payments which the former aide made voluntarily.

MARIA ALEJANDRA VICUNA FORMER ECUADOREAN VICE PRESIDENT "Ever since I became vice president, I've received constant slanderous and base attacks of the worst kind, because I'm a woman, and I'm from left."

But her case is part of a wider corruption scandal in the seat of power.

DAN COLLYNS QUITO "Most countries in South America are currently going through their own crackdowns on corruption and Ecuador is no exception. But the latest scandal here in Quito involving lawmakers allegedly extorting money from their own employees has caused particular public outrage."

So far, one legislator has been fired and others are under investigation for taking cuts from their employees' salaries, supposedly as contributions to their political parties.

Independent parliamentarian Eliseo Azuero was part of an investigative commission in Ecuador's lower house.

ELISEO AZUERO ECUADOREAN LAWMAKER "It's an open secret, and there's more than one case. There's a lot of cases and they should all be duly investigated. For that to happen, parliament has to lay down its own internal rules."

Moreno's previous vice president Jorge Glas is now in jail, convicted of running a bribery scam to get millions of dollars from Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction giant at the center of South America's biggest corruption scandal.

Glas was Moreno's running mate in the 2017 election, and both men served as vice presidents to Rafael Correa during his decade in office.

Moreno faces an uphill struggle to restore Ecuador's standing - both at home and abroad - after a wave of graft scandals emerged following Correa's 10-years as leader. Dan Collyns, CGTN, Quito.