QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuadorian authorities warned Saturday that the Andean country is on “high alert” after it received intelligence about an suspected attempt on President Daniel Noboa' s life.
Ecuador' s Government Ministry, providing no evidence for its claims, wrote on a post on the social network X that it was warned “about the planning of an assassination, terrorist attacks and ... violent protests.”
The ministry said it had taken security measures to neutralized the alleged threats.
The warning comes days after Noboa won re-election, defeating leftist opposition candidate Luisa González by a margin of more than one million votes, according to electoral authorities.
Noboa has gained popularity for his crackdown on organized crime at a time that violence has soared, prompting the president to declare that Ecuador is in an “internal armed conflict.”
The Noboa government claimed that those behind the recent threat were “criminal structures” and “political sectors defeated at the polls." Noboa alluded to an alleged military intelligence report circulating on social media which said that after Sunday's elections, “the transfer of hired killers from Mexico and other countries to Ecuador has begun."
The Associated Press consulted the military institution on the veracity of the report, to which its press office responded that an official statement would be issued in the coming hours.
But the lack of evidence from Ecuador's government fueled criticism from former candidate González, who has repeatedly claimed that the election result was falsified. On Saturday, she wrote on X that the assassination claims were simply the government's “desperation to silence us” and added that “more persecution is coming.”
Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate from the Citizen Revolution party, greets supporters after voting in the presidential election runoff in Canuto, Ecuador, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Ochoa)
Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa, his wife Lavinia Valbonesi and their son Alvaro attend the changing of the presidential guard ceremony at Carondelet Palace in Quito, Ecuador, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Retired professional baseball player Lenny Dykstra faces charges after Pennsylvania State Police said a trooper found drugs and paraphernalia in his possession during a traffic stop on New Year's Day.
Dykstra, 62, was a passenger when the vehicle was pulled over by a trooper with the Blooming Grove patrol unit in Pike County, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Scranton, where Dykstra lives.
Police said in a statement that charges will be filed but did not specify what they may be or what drugs were allegedly involved.
Matthew Blit, Dykstra’s lawyer, said in a statement that the vehicle did not belong to Dykstra and he was not accused of being under the influence of a substance at the scene.
“To the extent charges are brought against him, they will be swiftly absolved,” Blit said.
Dykstra's gritty style of play over a long career with the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies earned him the nickname “Nails.” He spent years as a businessman before running into a series of legal woes.
Dykstra served time in a California prison for bankruptcy fraud, sentenced to more than six months for hiding baseball gloves and other items from his playing days. That ran concurrent with a three-year sentence for pleading no contest to grand theft auto and providing a false financial statement. He claimed he owed more than $31 million and had only $50,000 in assets.
In April 2012, Dykstra pleaded no contest to exposing himself to women he met through Craigslist.
In 2019, Dykstra pleaded guilty on behalf of his company, Titan Equity Group, to illegally renting out rooms in a New Jersey house that it owned. He agreed to pay about $3,000 in fines.
That same year a judge dropped drug and terroristic threat charges against Dykstra after an altercation with an Uber driver. Police said they found cocaine, MDMA and marijuana among his belongings. Dykstra's lawyer called that incident “overblown” and said he was innocent.
And in 2020 a New York Supreme Court judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit that Dykstra filed against former Mets teammate Ron Darling over his allegation that Dykstra made racist remarks toward an opponent during the 1986 World Series.
Justice Robert D. Kalish said Dykstra’s reputation “for unsportsmanlike conduct and bigotry” had already been so tarnished that it could not be damaged further.
“Based on the papers submitted on this motion, prior to the publication of the book, Dykstra was infamous for being, among other things, racist, misogynist, and anti-gay, as well as a sexual predator, a drug-abuser, a thief, and an embezzler,” Kalish wrote.
FILE - Former baseball player Lenny Dykstra sits during his sentencing for grand theft auto in Los Angeles, on Dec. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
