The sage of the imprisonment of Ecuador’s former Vice President Jorge Glas had another dramatic chapter, after he was detained in an unprecedented raid on the Mexican embassy, where he sought asylum after charged with yet another set of corruption charges.
Glas was taken to hospital after he fell ill at a prison in Guayaquil. This took place just hours after his lawyers complained they had been unable to contact him.
Reuters reported:
“Glas, already twice convicted of corruption and now facing fresh charges, was arrested on Friday after a raid by police on Mexico’s Quito embassy, where he had been living since December.
In a statement published on X, the SNAI prison agency said Glas had been taken to the naval hospital in Guayaquil around noon local time. Glas fell ill “after refusing to eat food provided (in the jail) during the last 24 hours,” the statement said.”
Authorities say he is now in stable condition.
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The embassy raid for his arrest took the two countries bilateral relations, that were already bad, to a boiling point.
Mexico suspended diplomatic relations with Ecuador, and criticism arose from many countries, usually the ones sympathetic to the Latin American far-left.
“Ecuador has defended its violation of sovereign Mexican territory at the embassy, arguing the North American country cannot grant Glas asylum if he is facing charges, and that Ecuador had information about an imminent escape plan.
Glas was hospitalized after one of his lawyers, Sonia Vera, published an open letter dated on Sunday to express her ‘deep worry and alarm’ that Glas had be able to speak to his legal team, adding it amounted to ‘a severe infraction to the fundamental rights of Jorge Glas’.”
Glas, who is termed by conservatives to be a ‘narco-socialist’, was vice president from 2013 to 2017.
He was sentenced to six years for taking bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, and convicted again for eight years, for using money from contractors to fund campaigns for President Rafael Correa’s political movement.
“[Glas] now faces charges of misusing funds collected to aid reconstruction of coastal Manabi province after a devastating 2016 earthquake.”
Watch: Mexico has now released images of the raid that resulted in Glas’ detention:
| ÚLTIMA HORA: México revela el video de como fue el operativo para la captura de Jorge Glas en la embajada de ese país en Ecuador. Aplaudo a Daniel Noboa y a la policía que sin un solo disparo detuvieron al corrupto ex vicepresidente narcosocialista. ¿Apoyas a Daniel Noboa? pic.twitter.com/ey9GDEAnln
— Eduardo Menoni (@eduardomenoni) April 9, 2024