He suspects authorities want to prevent Spain from investigating him over the assassination of presidential candidate Villavicencio.
On Wednesday, EFE news agency reported that the defense of Wilmer Chavarria (aka Pipo), the leader of Los Lobos, Ecuador’s most powerful criminal gang, has appealed the decision by Spain’s National Court to extradite him to the South American country.
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The appeal seeks to have the full Criminal Chamber of the National Court overturn the decision adopted by the court’s Third Section, arguing that Ecuador has not provided specific, individualized, or verifiable guarantees.
His defense lawyers suspect that, although the reason for the extradition is for him to complete a 16-year prison sentence for three homicides during a shootout following a bank robbery in 2010, Ecuadorian authorities actually want to prevent Spain from investigating Chavarria over the 2023 assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
The National Court agreed to Chavarria’s extradition in late July, months after the judges rejected his extradition to the United States, which had sought him for his participation in a drug trafficking operation to bring 5 kilograms of cocaine into California.
The Ecuadorian drug trafficker was arrested in November 2025 in Malaga, where he had arrived in 2022 using a false identity from Colombia after faking his death in his homeland. He underwent seven facial surgeries to avoid being recognized.
His defense argues that the case for which he is wanted is considered closed in Ecuador following his supposed death, since no one corrected that decision when it became known that he was actually alive.
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But apart from that issue, Chavarria recalls that in February he was questioned at Zuera prison at the request of the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office in connection with the 2023 assassination of candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
During that interrogation, he claimed that the crime was ordered by current Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, amid fears that Villavicencio would win the 2025 elections.
For this reason, Chavarria believes that Ecuadorian authorities’ real interest lies in that proceeding, for which he has not been officially sought. He also suspects that his statement against the current Ecuadorian president puts his life at risk.
The events for which the National Court has approved his extradition — without prejudice to the final decision that rests with the Spanish government — took place on the morning of July 3, 2010, when Chavarria and two other suspects robbed a bank. After the robbery, a shootout occurred during a police pursuit. Three people died.
An Ecuadorian court sentenced Chavarria to 16 years in prison in 2010, of which he has already served more than 11. In September 2021, another court declared the sentence extinguished after receiving a purported death certificate that confirmed Chavarria had died on Feb. 23 of that year.
Shortly afterward, it became known that the document used to register his death was false, so the termination of the sentence was annulled.
During the extradition hearing held in June, Chavarria’s lawyers opposed his extradition and argued that he faces a risk of inhumane or degrading treatment in Ecuador and that his life would be in danger.
The Spanish court requested additional information from Ecuador to certify the amount of time Chavarria has left to serve and also to provide information on the “individualized and verifiable” prison guarantees that would apply if he were extradited.
Ecuador provided information on regulations concerning the rights and guarantees of people deprived of their liberty, as well as specific measures implemented to effectively guarantee prisoners’ rights to life and personal integrity.
For Spain’s National Court, the Ecuadorian response “reveals the provision of sufficient guarantees” that Chavarria’s imprisonment “will respect his fundamental rights.”
By contrast, Chavarria’s defense maintains that the response provides no guarantee that his life will not be in danger at a time when Ecuador has labeled him a “narco-terrorist” and following a statement in which he implicated President Noboa in Villavicencio’s assassination.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
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