Riobamba’s mayor, Juan Salazar Lopez, was deposed by a unanimous vote of Riobamba’s city council last night. The move comes more than a month after news broke of the disappearance of about $13 million dollars from the city’s bank account.

In early April, Mayor Salazar announced that $13 million had been transferred out of the municipality´s account and into 31 bank accounts of people and entities at different banks all over Ecuador. He blamed the theft on hackers, but the Central Bank contested the claim, saying there was no evidence of hacking. Instead, they said, the PINs they had given the municipality to use to access the account were used.

Since then, several municipal employees have been fired and replaced, and face jail time, and the investigation into the theft is ongoing. 

Last night, council’s states reasons for relieving the mayor of his post were threefold:

1)   The mayor’s encroachment of a public street for his personal use (as a drive-way)
2)   Irregularities in the budget for 2012
3)   Poor handling of the Central Bank PINs for the municipality’s bank account

No representatives of Salazar were present at the council meeting, which ran more than four hours as the councillors discussed the motion to remove the mayor.

This is the first time in Riobamba’s history since elections started in the late 1970s that the city has had to depose a democratically-elected mayor.

Original story

More reading (in Spanish):

Funds withdrawal doomed Mayor Salazar

Central Bank says PINs were used incorrectly, werent hacked

Comptroller says four people responsible for missing $13 million

Scandals dog Riobambas mayor