Ecuador affirms that Jorge Glas was detained due to imminent risk of escape

The Government of Ecuador assured this Saturday that it knew about the risk of imminent escape from the country of former vice president Jorge Glas, which is why it forcibly broke into the Mexican Embassy in Quito to take him into custody in prison.

This was stated by the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Gabriela Sommerfeld, in a press statement in which she insisted that her Government exhausted dialogue with the Mexican Executive before ordering the police raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito.

It was known of “a real risk of imminent flight of the citizen required by Justice”, Therefore, the Ecuadorian security force has acted to comply with a court order to arrest Glas in a case of embezzlement, the chancellor added in her appearance, which did not accept questions from the press.

Jorge Glas “is not a politically persecuted person”

He emphasized that “no criminal can be considered politically persecuted” and recalled that Glas also had two final convictions for other cases of corruption.

The Government of Ecuador “exhausted the diplomatic dialogue with Mexico regarding” former Vice President Glas, who for his part has denied the charges and has warned that he is the victim of alleged political persecution. and judicial for being a Correísta, in relation to the fact that he was vice president in the Government of the progressive president Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

He recalled that Glas had been a guest at the Mexican diplomatic Embassy in Quito since last December 17, just when the Prosecutor’s Office had issued a location and arrest warrant for a case of embezzlement of public funds in the reconstruction process of the province. coastal area of ​​Manabí, devastated by a powerful earthquake in April 2016.

Likewise, he recalled that the former vice president had two final convictions for the crimes of illicit association (related to the bribery scheme of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht) and bribery (for the illegal financing of his political movement).

According to Sommerfeld, the Mexican Embassy in Quito, by receiving him as a guest, “contributed” to Glas failing to comply with the order to appear before a court every week, which, according to her, clearly contravened the principle of non-intervention in internal affairs. from other States.

Likewise, he said that On several occasions, the Government of Ecuador informed the Mexican Embassy of its rejection of granting the right of diplomatic asylum to Glas, since he was a person tried for common crimes in ordinary courts.

He even recalled that on February 29, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry had asked the Mexican Embassy to give it permission so that the public force could enter its headquarters to comply with the arrest warrant for Glas, a request that was denied.
Ecuador justifies its actions in accordance with international regulations, especially the conventions on asylum and the fight against corruption, added the chancellor.

He also recalled the “unfortunate” statements by the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, about the murder of former Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and the apparent electoral consequences of that crime.

The Ecuadorian Government based itself on these statements to declare the Mexican ambassador in Quito, Raquel Sesur, “persona non grata”, whom it expelled one day before the invasion of the diplomatic headquarters of the Aztec country.

Sommerfeld said that these statements by the Mexican president constituted another violation of the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States.