Jorge Glas, the vice president of Ecuador in the governments of Rafael Correa and Lenín Moreno, entered the Mexican Embassy in Quito this Sunday afternoon to request protection. The Prosecutor's Office has requested the location and capture of the controversial Citizen Revolution politician without specifying why he is being prosecuted. It is a new scandal for the former official, who spent nearly five years in prison for corruption crimes and was released last year.
The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry has urged the Mexican authorities “to invite Mr. Glas to cooperate with the police authorities.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a statement that it is “expectant of the cooperation that Mexico provides for this purpose.” Various sentences weigh on Glas. One of them, six years in prison, for illicit association in the Odebrecht case. Another eight years for bribery by Bribery casewhere Correa and more than a dozen officials from his Administration were also sentenced.
It is not the first diplomatic conflict that an official of the Correa Government has caused. The former Minister of Transportation and Public Works, María de los Ángeles Duarte, took refuge for almost three years in the Argentine Embassy to evade an eight-year sentence for the Bribery case. In March 2023 he fled the diplomatic legation, in an escape that meant the rupture of relations between both governments.
The Mexican Government already welcomes other former officials into its territory who had previously taken refuge in the Embassy in Quito. Among them, the former president of the Assembly, Gabriela Rivadeneira and the assembly members Soledad Buendía, Carlos Viteri Gualinga and Edwin Jarrín. They left the country in 2019 after violent demonstrations during a national strike.
Jorge Glas is one of the most visible faces of the Citizen Revolution. He held important positions during the Correa Government: Minister of Telecommunications, strategic sectors. In the last period of the mandate he took charge of the vice presidency. He held this same position during the Moreno Administration until the Prosecutor's Office prosecuted him for corruption.
Glas surrendered to justice and spent nearly five years behind bars. He tried to get out of prison three times. He achieved it in November 2022 on the third attempt thanks to a precautionary measure granted by Judge Emerson Curipallo even though this robe was from a jurisdiction other than the one that conducted the process.
Judge Curipallo was arrested on December 14 as part of the mega-operation Metastasis, for being an alleged member of a corruption scheme entrenched in the judicial system. This was directed from prison by drug trafficker Leandro Norero, alias The boss. In addition to Glas, Curipallo also applied the same judicial measures to release the leaders of one of Ecuador's criminal gangs, Santiago Madrid and John Navarrete, known by their aliases. Madrid and Cuyuyui.
Follow all the international information on Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter.
#Ecuadorian #vice #president #Jorge #Glas #takes #refuge #Mexican #Embassy #avoid #arrest