Ecuador: former vice president Jorge Glas is transferred to a maximum security prison

Jorge Glas, the former vice president of Ecuador during part of Rafael Correa's presidential term, was transferred this Saturday to the La Roca maximum security prison, in Guayaquil, after having been detained on Friday night inside the Mexican Embassy, ​​where he had received political asylum, in an event that led the Mexican Government to break diplomatic relations with the Andean country.

Early this Saturday, Glas left in an armored vehicle and under a strong security device towards the Quito airport, where he was boarded on an aircraft heading to Guayaquil, where the La Roca maximum security prison is located.

Glas's destination prison was confirmed in a statement by the National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the State penitentiary agency, which will comply with the preventive detention order that weighed on the former vice president.

Glas is charged with alleged embezzlement (embezzlement) in the 'Reconstruction' case of the coastal province of Manabí, after the strong earthquake that occurred in 2016.

He must also finish serving an eight-year prison sentence, after the Ecuadorian Justice did not grant him the benefit of pre-release after having consolidated into one the sentences for bribery and illicit association that he has firm, of eight and six years. prison, respectively.

The first is related to the 'Bribery' case, regarding the alleged irregular financing of the ruling Alianza País party, in a ruling where Correa, who has refugee status in Belgium, was also convicted and politically disqualified.

The second is framed within the Odebrecht case, the international corruption network of this Brazilian construction company, on which Glas fights to achieve his innocence after the Justice in Brazil invalidated as evidence the company's computer system with the pseudonyms of the recipients. of bribes.

Glas had also received a third sentence of eight years in prison for the crime of embezzlement in the 'Singue' case, referring to the negotiation of contracts for the allocation of an oil field, but this ruling was later annulled.

For these sentences Glas was in prison for about five years between 2017 and 2022, until he was released with a precautionary measure issued by a judge.

The former vice president, who held office between 2013 and 2017 during Correa's mandate and then in the first months of Lenín Moreno's presidential term (2017-2021), has always rejected the convictions and accusations by declaring himself a politically persecuted person and victim of 'lawfare' (use of the judicial apparatus against political adversaries).

That is why since mid-2023 he had stayed at the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador to request asylum, which It was granted this Friday by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, at a time of maximum tension in relations between both countries.

The day before, the Government of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa had announced the expulsion of the Mexican ambassador, Raquel Serur, after López Obrador gave a statement linking the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio with the result of last year's elections. that Noboa won in the second round over the Correísta candidate Luisa González.

To arrest Glas, the Ecuadorian police stormed and forcibly entered Mexico's diplomatic headquarters in Quito, which López Obrador described as a violation of Mexican sovereignty and international law, which is why he chose to break diplomatic relations with Ecuador.

Meanwhile, Mexico demanded this Saturday “guarantees” for its diplomatic personnel to leave Ecuador, after the police assault on its embassy in Quito. This Saturday, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded “the necessary guarantees from Ecuador for the departure of Mexican (diplomatic) personnel,” according to a statement.