The former vice president of Ecuador, Jorge Glas, He is stable after being hospitalized urgently for an alleged drug overdose, according to police sources.
The leader of Correismo remained imprisoned in a maximum security prison in Guayaquil since last Saturday, when Ecuadorian security forces attacked the embassy of Mexico to take him into custody. The incident provoked criticism for being a violation of international law that eventually led to the breaking of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Glas, 54, was transferred to the Military Hospital of that city from La Roca prison, where he is serving preventive detention in the context of a case for alleged corruption. In the midst of a strong police operation, the leader of the Citizen Revolution party, of former president Rafael Correa, was treated for taking medications such as anxiolytics, antidepressants and sedatives.
Who is Jorge Glas, the double former vice president of Ecuador torn from the Mexican embassy
“I arrived after noon. Here they gave him first aid. It was fast, and from here it already left“, workers at the Military Hospital told local media. The former vice president, meanwhile, remained stable so he was transferred back to the prison unit, a fact that was corroborated by Sonia Vera, Glas’s defense lawyer.
Jorge Glas had taken refuge in the Mexican embassy since mid-December, under the guise of political asylum, in the middle of the third judicial process he is facing for corruption reasons. Finally, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, decided to grant the former vice president political refugee status for alleged lawfare. The Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboadecided to storm the Mexican embassy to capture him before he flew to Mexico City with a safe conduct, an unprecedented extreme measure that violates the Vienna Convention.
Jorge Glas has been detained since last Friday in a maximum security prison.
Glas’s defense said that he is “kidnapped” by the Ecuadorian government
Glas’s health deteriorated during his detention, when he was tied up and beaten in different parts of his body by police officers who entered the diplomatic headquarters in Quito. For his part, former President Correa denounced that he was “mistreated” in prison and those close to him indicated that he has been incommunicado since Saturday.
In addition, his legal team presented a habeas corpus and denounced that Glas is “kidnapped by the Ecuadorian government”, that has the power to suspend rights such as due process of detainees within the framework of the emergency regime.
Quito, for its part, maintains that the asylum granted by Mexico to Glas is “illicit”, since he is being investigated for a common crime (embezzlement for reconstruction works). In 2022, the former vice president was released from prison after serving five of the years to which he was sentenced for corruption.
Ecuador faces a “perfect storm” of criticism of its violation of the Mexican embassy
Daniel Noboa: “Justice is not negotiated”
The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, said this Monday that he is willing to “resolve any difference” with Mexico, but warned that “justice is not negotiated” in relation to the kidnapping of former vice president Jorge Glas.
“To the brother people of Mexico, I want to express that I will always be willing to resolve any difference, but that justice is not negotiated, and that we will never protect criminals who have harmed Mexicans,” the Ecuadorian president wrote in X.
Furthermore, Noboa supported his decision to invade the Mexican embassy, arguing that he could not run “the risk of an imminent escape” by Glas, a “convicted criminal.”
Daniel Noboa, president of Ecuador.
For her part, this Monday the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld indicated that her country is open to “reestablishing relations” with Mexico. She acknowledged that “both countries were affected,” but that “Ecuador received a provocation, repeated non-compliance.”
And he considered that the “most serious” thing was the statement by the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in which he “questions the legitimacy of the last elections.” “There was interference in internal affairs of the State. That is also contravening” the Vienna Convention, Sommerfeld said.
The crisis between both countries escalated on Thursday, when Quito expelled the Mexican ambassador, Raquel Serur, after López Obrador’s statements. The assault on the embassy has been condemned by much of the international community. Nicaragua also broke relations with Ecuador, and Bolivia summoned its ambassador in Quito, Segundina Flores. Mexico closed its diplomatic offices in Ecuador indefinitely, while Quito withdrew its officials from the embassy in Mexico City, but keeps its two consulates open.
CD / ED