By Gonzalo Ortiz
QUITO, Oct 3 1995 (IPS)

The political trial of Ecuadorian Vice- President Alberto Dahik on charges of fraud and bribery has set the stage for a fight between two right-wing factions, which has the ferocious overtones of a family feud.

The vice-president’s Monday night defence in Congress turned into a five and a half hour diatribe against former president Febres Cordero and several of his cronies.

Dahik, the head of the Conservative Party, aimed a spate of accusations against Febres Cordero, president of the Social Christian Party, Mayor of Guayaquil and former president (1984- 88).

Analysts predict that the vice-president will resign – as urged by President Sixto Duran Ballen – when his defence plea is finished, probably on Wednesday.

Dahik’s allegations against Febres Cordero are especially hard- hitting as they come from a man who was one of the former president’s close collaborators.

Dahik served as presidential adviser, president of the Monetary Council and Finance Minister during Febres Cordero’s term.

In a televised response to the vice-president’s allegations, Febres Cordero said Dahik “is either an accomplice (in what he denounces) or a coward, because he had kept silent.” But he claimed to be unconcerned by what he termed the “terrible nonsense” spewed by Dahik.

During his defence, the vice-president accused the former president of having deliberately produced the greatest fiscal deficit, inflation and shedding of hard currency in Ecuador’s history, in order to leave a country on the brink of ruin to his Social Democratic successor, Rodrigo Borja (1988-92).

Such an argument is not new. Indeed, Borja and his supporters have frequently reiterated such claims.

What is new is that the argument – as well as accusations of authoritarianism and human rights abuses – is now wielded by one of Febres Cordero’s former cronies.

The vice-president accused the former president of ordering the persecution and physical mistreatment of opponents during his term, harassment of the independent press and pressure against other branches of government.

He questioned Febres Cordero’s honesty, pointing out that he was the only president who, since the country’s return to constitutional rule in 1979, failed to make a declaration of property at the beginning or end of his term.

Dahik refuted the former president’s claim that his total wealth abroad amounts to six million dollars, presenting a list of properties owned by Febres Cordero in the U.S. state of Florida that are allegedly worth more than that.

He insinuated that Febres Cordero came by illicit funds during his presidency, pointing out that while the total value of his Florida properties remained steady at 2.78 million dollars from 1973 to 1984, it mushroomed to 4.5 million dollars from 1984 to 1988.

He provided a list of a dozen current accounts held by Febres Cordero in Miami, and urged that bank secrecy laws be lifted to allow scrutiny.

The vice-president also claimed that Miguel Orellana, one of the former president’s secretaries who later became a son-in-law, acquired a 140,000 dollar apartment in Miami in 1987, and later a 1.2 million dollar house in Coral Gables – without mortgages.

Dahik revealed the existence of three Miami accounts that hold millions of dollars and are in the name of the wife of Joffre Torbay, one of Febres Cordero’s close collaborators, who fled the country after being accused of embezzlement.

And he presented documentation of a 447,500 dollar commission allegedly deposited in a Guayaquil bank account by the Hungarian Medicorp company during the former president’s term.

Washing his hands of the “disastrous” economic policies put into effect during the last stage of Febres Cordero’s term, Dahik vindicated his own management of the economy in the first two years of that government and his three years as vice-president.

He presented himself as an economic reformer, who became the target of the former president’s wrath after disagreeing with him during the last years of the Social Christian administration.

Dahik argued that the accusations of fraudulent use of expense account funds and bribery that have been aimed against him are an attempt at vengeance by Febres Cordero and the Social Christian Party for his having abandoned them to join Duran Ballen’s winning ticket in the 1992 presidential elections.

Christian Democratic Deputy Carlos Vallejo said the president of Congress, Fabian Alarcon, should immediately send the documents presented by Dahik to the Supreme Court, in order for an investigation to be opened and charges filed against Febres Cordero.

Dahik’s testimony was broadcast live without interruptions by the country’s three main T.V. channels, and nearly 100 radio stations.

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