Government & Politics

MIAMI, April 2 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- The following was issued today by Ecuadorian Consulate in Miami:

Press Conference
April 6, 2009, 10 AM
Intercontinental Hotel
100 Chopin Plaza, Miami, FL 33131.

Speakers include:
-- Dr. Franco Sanchez, Deputy Minister of Government, Ecuador
-- Patricia Salazar, Esq., Human Rights, Ministry of Justice, Ecuador
-- Marcia Silvers, Esq., Appellate Attorney for Nelson Serrano
-- Francisco Serrano, son of Nelson Serrano

Documents prepared by the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry were handed over officially to the United States Embassy in Ecuador on March 6, 2009 denouncing the intrusion on their sovereignty through illegal actions committed by two officials: Paul Wallace, assistant State Attorney of Florida, and Tommy Ray, an FDLE detective. The intrusion of these officers resulted in a series of illegal acts that violated international law, human rights, and the extradition agreement signed by both countries. The Ecuadorian government condemns any attack on their national sovereignty.

These representatives from Florida abused and illegally took advantage of their influence to articulate an illegal deportation process, including making payments to Ecuadorian police officers, a fact which was acknowledged under oath by the detective Tommy Ray.

"The Ecuadorian government, in view of all the irregularities committed in Ecuador by the same representatives that prosecuted him in Florida, fears that irregularities may have been committed in the trial that Nelson Serrano faced in Polk County, Florida," says Deputy Minister of Government, Dr. Franco Sanchez.

The government of Ecuador studied the case, agrees with the following conclusions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and both entities support Nelson Serrano:

1. Nelson Ivan Serrano Saenz is Ecuadorian by birth and American by naturalization.
2. At the time of his arrest, Nelson Serrano and his companions were threatened with firearms and treated with excessive violence.
3. Nelson Serrano was totally incommunicado from his family, deprived of any outside contact and personal contact with his lawyer even though he was entitled by law to do so.
4. He was drugged and held over night in a dog kennel at the airport in Quito.
5. He was handcuffed and beaten, causing considerable injury to the point where the American Airlines flight attendant refused to allow entry because of the bleeding he suffered from the inflicted injuries, but officials of the United States influenced the airline's captain to allow entry under those conditions.
6. Nelson Serrano was arrested without a warrant issued by a competent court, deported without due process and handed over to officials of Florida who paid for his capture.

The Ecuadorian government, by order of the Ministry of Government, demands the immediate return of Nelson Serrano, a citizen of Ecuador, to his home country from which he was kidnapped.

SOURCE Ecuadorian Consulate in Miami