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Ecuador Police Polygraph-Tested at US Embassy

Quito, Feb 26 (Prensa Latina) Ecuadorian Police Chief, Gen. Jaime Hurtado, said on Thursday that members of the Special Service Unit (UIES) were subject to lie detectors (polygraph tests) at the US Embassy.

It was a practice carried out under previous administrations, as part of the so-called US cooperation with police institutions, which was eliminated by the current government of President Rafael Correa, said Hurtado in remarks to a national TV channel.

He explained that the decision to replace Maj. Manuel Silva as UIES Chief without the US Embassy's consent and backing was the cause of US cutting off aid to the entity, devoted to fighting drug trafficking and organized crime.

Hurtado added that in January he met with US diplomat Max Sullivan, expelled last week.

Sullivan, a CIA chief, made the continuation of this aid to UIES conditional on maintaining the practice of appointing and grading UIES members.

He told me that if I failed to reconsider Silva's replacement, the agreement would be suspended, and I told him there was no written agreement about it, said Hurtado.

Hurtado noted that there is no document whatsoever defining terms of cooperation with the United States, and the alleged verbal pact established that officers who passed the lie detector of the US Embassy in Quito should remain in their posts.

He denied a dismantling of the 120-strong UIES, but admitted there have been changes in some of its members.

Hurtado said that in the wake of Silva's dismissal, the US people took away all equipment given to UIES, including computers and hard discs with classified information.

At the moment of official handover of the post, we realized that these means were missing; and they did that without the national Police consent, said Hurtado, holding Silva responsible for this theft.

Hurtado admitted to not having an inventory of equipment given and later taken away by the US Embassy and denied that Maj. Silva, whose whereabouts are not known, is being persecuted or threatened, and urged him to appear before his superiors to be subject to an internal disciplinary process.

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PL-23