Jorge Glas was pulled out of his hiding place
Diplomatic relations between Ecuador and Mexico have been suspended following the storming of the Mexican embassy and the detention of the Ecuadorian former vice president, Mexico’s leader said Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on your X (Twitter).
According to him, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Alicia Barcena informed him about the storming of the embassy by the Ecuadorian army.
According to Associated PressEcuadorian police stormed the Mexican embassy in the capital Quito to detain the former vice president Ecuador Jorge
Voices, who has lived on the territory of the diplomatic mission since December 2023. On April 5, Mexican authorities decided to grant him political asylum. The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry called the granting of asylum to the ex-vice president illegal and demanded his extradition.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry reported that several diplomats were injured during the assault.
Mexico will also appeal to the International Court of Justice with a request to condemn Ecuador for violations of international law, Bárcena added.
President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa stated that the police actions at the Mexican Embassy were aimed at “protecting national sovereignty in accordance with a zero-tolerance policy” towards criminals.
In 2017, Jorge Glas was removed from his position as vice president due to a corruption scandal. He was accused of receiving bribes from a construction company Oderbrecht. The prosecutor’s office showed an audio recording in which Glas and one of the Ecuadorian officials can be heard developing a bribery scheme. The vice president pleaded not guilty. Glas was sentenced to six years in prison. He served his sentence from 2017 to 2022, and in December 2023 he asked for asylum.
According to the minister, Glas had been taking refuge at the Mexican diplomatic mission since December 2023 and had asked for asylum. The Ecuadorian side provided the embassy with all the information about the allegations of bribery and embezzlement against the former vice president. Ecuador considers granting him asylum illegal, Sommerfeld emphasized.
Glas was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of corruption. On April 5, Mexico City granted him political asylum. After this, Ecuadorian security forces burst into the embassy and arrested the politician
Brazilian builders Odebrecht “greased up” Jorge Glas for $13.5 million. An Ecuadorian court sentenced the vice president to six years in prison for bribes
Ecuador court sentences ousted vice president Jorge Glaza to six years in prison and a fine of $33 million for bribes in the case of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, Reuters reports. Glas is the first person convicted of this level in this case. Jorge Glas served as vice president under the former leader of the state, Rafael Correia, and retained his post after Lenin Moreno won the election. He, however, suspended Glas from his duties in August, declaring that he was “not a team player.” In October, the court approved Glas’ provisional arrest in the Odebrecht case.
In November, it was decided that Glas would stand trial on charges of organizing corrupt activities. The court found that the vice president was guilty of criminal conspiracy with the company and receiving kickbacks from it, RIA Novosti reports.
According to prosecutors, Glas may have received about $13.5 million in bribes from the Brazilian company to award it five government contracts in strategic sectors of the economy. In addition to Glas, 12 more people are involved in the case, including his uncle, through whom he received kickbacks.
Odebrecht admitted its involvement in corrupt practices in order to obtain government contracts in a number of countries. $3.5 billion was spent on transactions with authorities in the United States, Brazil and Switzerland. In Ecuador, the company is suspected of paying $33.5 million in kickbacks.
