“The AMLO government, which is similar to 21st century socialism, has been protecting a number of proven criminals with enforceable sentences, with evidence,” explains Ecuadorian analyst Francisco Endara, living in Miami as a political refugee, in conversation with DIARIO LAS AMERICAS.
Glas, 54, was arrested on the night of Friday, April 5 and transfer to a maximum security prison, after AMLO granted him the asylum requested in December 2023, when he was received at the Mexican diplomatic headquarters as a “illustrious guest”after his request for pre-release was denied and the case was uncovered “Metastasis”which devel- oped the restoration of “narcopolitics” in the South American nation, subjected by the drug mafias to a wave of unprecedented violence.
In this case, still under investigation, more than 50 judicial, police and prison officials were arrested. Among them, the Judge Emerson Curipallowhich in 2022 released Glas on parole under a precautionary measure of presentation that he had to comply with weekly, and which he failed to comply with after taking refuge in the Mexican embassy.
After this failure, the Ecuadorian justice system issued an arrest warrant, to which was added another preventive detention order issued for embezzlement in the Manabí Reconstruction case, which the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating.
A growing crisis
Glas, a trusted man of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), has tried to sell his judicial case as one of political persecution, an argument supported by the AMLO government, despite notifications from the Ecuadorian State, which in March requested access to the embassy to arrest the former vice president.
Mexico denied access to Ecuadorian justice being aware of Glas’ judicial recordwhich began a diplomatic crisis, which increased after AMLO’s unfortunate statements in which he compared the murder of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, the main detractor of Correismo who denounced the links of drug trafficking with politics, with the recent hitmen that occurred in Mexico.
In his statements, AMLO questioned the legality of the process in which Noboaa businessman with no political experience, overcame the polls and defeated Correa’s ‘dolphin’, Luisa González, who was the great favorite at the polls.
This fact led the Ecuadorian government to declare Mexican ambassador Raquel Serur persona non gratawho was given a period of 72 hours to leave the country.
In this scenario, AMLO decided to grant asylum to Glas, a measure rejected by Ecuador, which described it as “illegal”as pointed out by the various international conventions on political and diplomatic asylum, which establish that “it is not lawful to grant asylum to people who, at the time of requesting it, are accused or prosecuted before competent ordinary courts for common crimes, or are convicted of such crimes and by said courts, without having served the respective sentences.”
“Isn’t López Obrador prostituting the institution of asylum? That is the question that must be asked because they use the tools of democracy to hide criminals,” Endara asserts.
Under Article III of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, The Mexican government should have invited Glas “to withdraw” from its facilities or hand him over to the Ecuadorian State, so that he could serve more than two years in prison pending a unified sentence of 8 years.
“Ecuador has exhausted diplomatic dialogue with Mexico regarding this issue”said Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld. She reiterated that Mexico should comply with the obligations contained in the UN Convention against Corruption, and cooperate with Ecuador to “prevent and combat acts of corruption in the exercise of public functions.”
Risk of escape
The AMLO government, similar to former President Correa, has turned Mexico into a safe haven for former Correísta officials criminally prosecuted for corruption crimes and their relationships with drug traffickers.
Glas, a symbol of Ecuadorian corruption, was the last of Correismo whom the Mexican president sought to shelter under his wings to prevent access to justice. His arrest was carried out after Mexico’s announcement to send a military plane to search for his ambassador and information from a “real risk of imminent flight” managed by the Ecuadorian government.
“In the continuous challenge that the López Obrador government had been making, They planned to take him (Glas) away in a diplomatic careven though he did not have safe passage to be able to circulate in Ecuadorian territory,” says Endara.
This hypothesis was confirmed by Canseco himself. “We were about to leave and suddenly we ran into police officers.”recognized Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican mission, in statements to the press, in which he appears quite upset after the altercation he was involved in when he tried to avoid Glas’s arrest.
“This is a fugitive from justice, There what prevailed was precisely to defend the interest of the Ecuadorian people because this guy, along with the entire group, is part of an organized crime network,” says Endara.
The Noboa government defended the sovereignty of its country and the supremacy of the Constitution, as established in its article 425, above international treaties, in the midst of the fight it is carrying out for a “Ecuador without impunity”.
“In a complex and unprecedented situation that the country is experiencing, I have made exceptional decisions to protect national security, the rule of law and the dignity of a people that rejects any type of impunity for criminals, delinquents, corrupt or narco-terrorists,” he expressed. Noboa in a statement.
Mexico, paradise for runners
Mexico, plagued by drug trafficking gangs, whose tentacles reach Ecuador, has become during AMLO’s government a a paradise for correístas with a history of corruption. Since 2018, she has hosted at least nine former Correa officials, including former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño.
Also to the legislators Gabriela Rivadeneira, Sofía Espín, Viviana Bonilla, Carlos Viteri, Luis Molina, Soledad Buendíaand her husband, the former president of the Citizen Participation Council, Edwin Jarrin. In addition, he received the former superintendent of Information and Communication, Carlos Ochoaand the former Minister of Transportation and Public Works, Walter Solis.
“What AMLO has continually done is interfere in Ecuadorian justice to protect his friends from 21st century socialism,” says Endara, as he did in 2019 with Bolivian president Evo Morales and tried to do with former Peruvian president Pedro Castillo in 2022. .
Noboa’s decision was rejected by the international community, mainly from the dictatorships of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuelaand of former President Correa who, contradicting his socialist diatribe, has requested sanctions against the Ecuadorian Statea fact that has been described by Noboa as “betrayal of the country.”
While Mexico indicated that it will take the case to international bodies, such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Organization of American States (OAS), which on March 10 condemned, with a “strong call for attention,” the action of the Ecuadorian government.
“This is not a fight to defend international lawas López Obrador and the entire group of 21st century socialism are trying to paint, who totally manipulate and twist things when it suits them,” Endara emphasizes.
@ebritop22
