QUITO.- Ecuador will refuse to grant safe passage to the former vice president Jorge Glaswho is taking refuge in the Mexican embassy in Quito and faces a preventive detention order, as Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld warned this Friday.
The refusal to provide safe passage prevents Gla from leaving the country, while he faces an investigation for alleged diversion of funds intended for the reconstruction of areas affected by an earthquake in 2016.
The Prosecutor’s Office alleges an “abuse of state funds” in the case, pointing out that to date there has been no evidence of reconstruction of works after the earthquake. In addition to Glas, two other former officials of Rafael Correa’s government are implicated and are being prosecuted for alleged embezzlement.
Glas, who led a committee for reconstruction, was sentenced in 2017 to six years in prison for the Odebrecht corruption scheme and was granted parole in 2022. The Ecuadorian chancellor argued that asylum is not appropriate in this case, since This is a criminal investigation. Glas’s defense seeks to protect his physical integrity by alleging insecurity in prisons.
It should be noted that last March, another former minister of Correa’s government, María de los Ángeles Duarte, escaped from the Argentine embassy after more than two years of refuge, when Ecuador refused to grant her safe passage. This incident caused a diplomatic crisis between Quito and Buenos Aires.
In recent years, Mexico has granted asylum or refuge to former Correa government officials, including former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño and representatives Soledad Buendía, Carlos Viteri and Gabriela Rivadeneira.
Source: With information from AFP
