Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa called current President Daniel Noboa a 'narco-criminal' for endorsing the US military intervention that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Noboa responded by calling him a 'son of a mule'. 'You are the one who steals elections, violates embassies, lies, plunders, kidnaps, and tortures,' Correa stated in a message on social network X. Correa was reacting to a previous message from Noboa, who celebrated the announcement by US President Donald Trump about the capture of Maduro and his wife during a military operation carried out by US forces on Venezuelan territory. The former Ecuadorian president still has not provided conclusive evidence that Noboa was re-elected in the 2025 elections with 'fraud' against the Correaist candidate Luisa González, while he has always opposed the invasion that Noboa ordered in 2024 on the Mexican Embassy in Quito to arrest his former vice president Jorge Glas. 'However, in your defense, your servility is understandable because your true homeland—if you have one—is the United States,' Correa concluded to remind the current Ecuadorian ruler that he was born in Miami (USA). Minutes later, also through X, Noboa responded to Correa with a long message in which he began by calling him a 'son of a mule' for allowing, during his tenure, the entry of drug trafficking mafias into Ecuador, a problem that the current government is fighting in its declared 'war' on organized crime. 'You allowed drug trafficking to do as it pleased in Ecuador, a problem that to this day we combat, while you remain a fugitive in Belgium, living in luxury,' Noboa stated, recalling that an eight-year prison sentence for bribery hangs over Correa, which the former leader rejects, considering himself a political persecutee. 'Justifying the aggression against a sovereign and Latin American country demonstrates your pettiness in every sense. The people are not foolish and do not forget,' Noboa added. Thus, the head of state went on to reproach Correa for persecuting his family, one of the country's largest fortunes 'that has been providing employment in Ecuador for over 80 years.' He also accused Correa of murdering journalists, allowing the financing of drug traffickers and the Maduro government through his political movement. Former President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa (2007-2017), called the current president, Daniel Noboa, a 'narco-criminal' for approving the military intervention with which the United States captured the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro; and the ruler responded by calling him a 'son of a mule'. 'My country is Ecuador, for which I have risked my life time and again. It is a promise,' he finished. While Correa has always backed Maduro and recognized him as the legitimate winner of the last elections, Noboa was one of the first governments in the international community to consider opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia the winner and recognize him as the elected president of Venezuela. 'The only narco-criminal is you. You will end up like Noriega and Maduro, mark my words. You let people close to you pay for your crimes. Soon, with proof, we will show the country how you, your people, and a sector of the banking industry are colluding to destroy a country that no longer needs you and rejects you. I face problems, you flee from them.' 'The same thing will happen to you as with (Lenín) Moreno: mark my words. Your soul as a vassal is a betrayal of the Great Homeland. You disappeared people and destroyed families.'
