Crooked Power

Hear from the Perez family, 10 years after their battle against President Rafael Correa.

Unsure of their safety or their future, the Perez family flees Ecuador. It’s the country they’ve called home for generations, but they know they’re being watched by President Rafael Correa.

The Perez family faces off with President Rafael Correa. Their family newspaper could go bankrupt, and the Perez brothers could go to prison. And the president is willing to go whatever lengths necessary to make sure he wins.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa lashes out in the wake of the opinion column in El Universo referring to him as a “dictator.” He launches a propaganda campaign, then sets his sights on the writer, on the newspaper, and on the Perez family, who has owned the newspaper for 100 years.

On September 30, 2010, chaos erupts in Ecuador. President Rafael Correa locks horns with an angry mob of policemen. Tensions escalate nationwide, and an injured Correa is taken to a hospital in the police headquarters. Ecuadorians do not know if the president is safe or whether he is a hostage. Correa’s administration enforces a media blockade. Ecuadorians don’t know what is going on.

On Sept. 30, 2010, the South American nation of Ecuador descended into chaos. The national police force had hit the streets in a large protest demanding better benefits. Ecuador’s brash and theatrical authoritarian leader Rafael Correa cracked down on the protesting police and cut media coverage, leaving the nation’s citizens wondering what happened. In the aftermath, Ecuador’s largest newspaper, El Universo, published an opinion piece demanding answers, and Correa went after the newspaper, threatening prison time and millions of dollars in fines. The Drag, the podcast production house behind the hit true crime podcasts Darkness: The Orange Tree and Austin Bomber, tells the story of the newspaper family that fought back against a tyrant, with dire implications for their family and for press freedom across the Americas.