AN ECUADORIAN businessman who got a $155 million contract from the Martinelli administration for an irrigation project on land it didn’t have, was arrested at Tocumen International Airport on Monday, May 25, as he attempted to flee the country. Instead of a plane street he got a cot in a police cell.

 Juan Antonio Hurtado, president of the Ecuadorian firm Hidalgo & Hidalgo, is being investigated by the third anti-corruption prosecutor for embezzlement over the failed irrigation system in Tonosí in which the last government disbursed $37 million. The work was tendered for $155 million.
Minister of Agricultural Development Jorge Arango filed the complaint.
Hurtado was taken into custody as he tried to leave the country. He is being held at the Department of Judicial Investigation (DIJ) in Ancón.
The contract was awarded during the government of Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014). It was awarded despite the fact that the project did not have land for its construction.