This video was slowed down to accuse former Ecuadorian minister Andrés Arauz of being “drunk”

On January 12, 2023, former Ecuadorian minister Andrés Arauz made a live broadcast on his Facebook profile against the referendum on security, politics, and the environment called for February 5 by President Guillermo Lasso. A fragment of this video has been broadcast on social networks with Arauz’s voice slowed down and users claim that he spoke “drunk”. However, in the original recording, which does not include background music, the politician is heard speaking normally.

“Apart from stupid… drunk”, says a text written about the video shared more than 2,000 times on Facebook (one, 2) and Twitter (one, 2).

Screenshot of a tweet made on January 16, 2023

arauz he was coordinating minister of Knowledge and Human Talent of Ecuador, between 2015 and 2017, during the government of Rafael Correa (2007-2017). He was a presidential candidate in 2021, when he lost in Second round in front of Lasso.

In the video that went viral on social networks, the economist talks about the referendum on security, politics and the environment that will take place on February 5 in Ecuador, along with the elections for local authorities.

The referendum raises eight questions, one of them on the extradition of Ecuadorians who have committed crimes linked to transnational organized crime, which plagues the country and has led to an increase in homicides and drug seizures.

“We say no to Lasso. What we have discussed is that beyond the eight questions, the annexes, the details, blah, blah. We are very clear that we have to say no to Lasso because if he gets a positive result he will want to use that to destroy the Ecuadorian people”says Arauz.

In the sequence, in addition to the politician’s voice, loud background music is heard.

manipulated video

A reverse search on Google with frames of the viralized recording allowed us to establish that it is a fragment of a transmission made by Arauz on his Facebook profile, on January 12, 2023.

However, in the original version, which lasted seven minutes and 28 seconds, there is no background music and his voice is heard as normal.

In the second 20 of the original recording, the fragment that went viral begins. It takes Arauz 40 seconds to say what in the edited video seems to take 50 seconds.

On his Twitter account, the former minister answered to the edited fragment qualifying it as “false” Y “manipulated”, and shared the link to his original broadcast on Facebook.

The option to modify the speed of the videos is a basic function of the editing programs.

AFP Factual has verified slowed-down videos on other occasions to show how “drunken” to the presidents of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (one, 2); Argentina, Alberto Fernandez; and Columbia, Gustavo Petro.