Man may face charges of murder in Ecuador

Luis Guaman is believed to be the last person to see Maria Avelina Palaguachi Cela and her 2-year-old son, Brian, alive, but he boarded a flight bound for his native Ecuador hours after their bludgeoned bodies were found in a dumpster outside their Brockton apartment.

Guaman has not been charged with the killings or named as a suspect, but Massachusetts authorities said they wanted to question him, and that his unexpected departure thwarted a key part of the investigation.

Ecuador’s constitution bars extradition of its citizens, but prosecutor Patricia Inga in Cuenca — where Guaman is being held on charges of using a false passport — said the country’s criminal code allows for Ecuadorans to be prosecuted in Ecuador for crimes committed abroad.

“We are still in the investigative phase,’’ Inga said. “But if there is evidence to prosecute him for the crime, it must be done.’’

Guaman was arrested by Ecuadoran authorities shortly after he arrived in the country last week after police received a tip from his estranged wife in the United States.

He was charged with using a passport under another name, Segundo Castro, and is being held for 30 days on those charges.

When he was confronted by police, he told them he used the false passport because he was wanted for murder in Massachusetts, an agent of the judicial police in Ecuador said.

“He was very nervous in the moment,’’ the agent said.

Some questions could not be answered yesterday about how a prosecution of a crime in another country would be carried out, and how evidence gathered by investigators in the United States would be weighed in Ecuador.

Inga acknowledged such a trial would be difficult, but said that officials in Ecuador are taking steps to gather some of their own evidence.

After the arrival of the bodies of the victims on Thursday, together with a third relative who died in a roofing accident days after their deaths, authorities in Ecuador conducted their own autopsies so they would have independent medical records.

Many obstacles face Ecuadoran prosecutors, she said. The scene of the crime is thousands of miles away, and language barriers are slowing communication between US and Ecuadoran authorities.

“Unfortunately, it’s hard for everyone because it happened there,’’ she said.

She said authorities are waiting to review medical reports, evidence from Massachusetts, and other information before making a final decision to proceed with homicide charges against Guaman. She said a decision could take days, or weeks, depending on the evidence and cooperation between both countries.

The maximum sentence for homicide in Ecuador is 16 to 25 years in jail, she said.

Relatives of the victims, whose bodies were brought to their family’s home in a remote village in the mountainous region of Canar yesterday after the autopsies, had been pushing for prosecution of Guaman through a lawyer, Alfonso Andrade.

Many relatives had hoped the killer would be caught and prosecuted in the United States.

Maria Petrona Palaguachi, a cousin, her eyes filled with tears, said many were fearful that justice would not be served.

“In the United States, the laws are tougher,’’ she said. “Let’s hope something happens because we’ve seen many cases where something should have been done, and it wasn’t.’’

Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @mariasacchetti.