Arrest warrant issued for former Ecuador president

Ecuadorean authorities say an arrest warrant has been issued for former President Jamil Mahuad for allegedly misappropriating public funds during the country's late 1990s banking crisis.
Interior Minister Jose Serrano announced today via Twitter that the international police agency Interpol had issued an alert about the warrant.
Serrano did not offer any details about Mahuad's alleged crime or say when the warrant was issued.
Mahuad fled a 2000 coup and settled in the United States.
During a severe 1999 financial crisis he declared a bank holiday, freezing accounts and replacing Ecuador's sucre with the US dollar. Half of Ecuador's 42 banks shut down during the crisis.

A telephone message left at a Massachusetts phone number registered in Mahuad's name was not immediately returned.