Quito, March 31 (teleSUR-RHC) An opposition supporter, who recently emerged after a year in hiding as a fugitive from justice, told a private media station on Friday that he intended to go to Washington to have the U.S. government apply unilateral sanctions against Ecuador as they have done with Venezuela.

“We are going to ask the U.S. senate commission to analyze the case of Ecuador's violation of human rights and specific cases of corruption so that the same measures and sanctions that the Obama government recently imposed on Venezuela be imposed (on Ecuador),” Fernando Villavicencio told Ecuavisa.

Villavicencio, along with former congressman Clever Jimenez, were found guilty by an Ecuadorean judge of defaming against the country’s President, Rafael Correa. The two submitted a complaint to the public prosecutor accusing the president of crimes against humanity, alleging that Correa has 'staged' a coup attempt on September 30, 2010.

The court found that there was no ground for complaint, an the accusations were “malicious and reckless.” After the Supreme Court of Justice of Ecuador ratified the lower court's ruling, a judge ordered the arrest of Villavicencio and Jimenez so that they could serve their 12-month sentence. Instead of turning themselves in, the two fled and were fugitives until earlier this month when they reemerged from hiding after a judge declared their sentence extinguished. The two then went on a media blitz, portraying themselves as victims of political prosecution.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa denounced the statements of Villavicencio during his weekly television, program calling them shameful and considered them an affront to the country's sovereignty and dignity. “They can go wherever they please, here in the Citizen's Revolution they will find sovereignty, dignity, honesty, transparency and respect for human rights,” said President Correa.