Caption,
Jorge Glas was sentenced to eight years in prison for the Odebrecht corruption case.
Article information
- Author, Editorial
- Scroll, BBC News World
April 6, 2024
The political career of former Vice President of Ecuador Jorge Glas Espinel – the man at the center of Mexico’s rupture in relations with Quito – is closely associated with one name: that of former President Rafael Correa.
Since his first official position in 2007 as head of the Solidarity Fund of Correa’s first administration, Glas – 54 years old and an engineer by profession – began a meteoric career within the government and the former president’s circles, which led him to accompany him in the presidential formula in the 2013 campaign.
But it was also with his foray as Correa’s vice president that his problems with the law began.
After four years in office, in December 2017 Glas was sentenced to eight years in prison for receiving bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, in a case that hit several governments in Latin America.
At that time Glas was acting as vice president of Lenín Moreno, who had been elected in May of that year to succeed Correa.
It was Moreno himself who confirmed, after a vote in the Ecuadorian parliament in January 2018, that Glas would no longer hold the position of vice president during his administration.
At that moment he surrendered to the authorities.
But after several court rulings and thanks to a writ of habeas corpus, Glas was granted parole on November 28, 2022, when he had served half of his sentence.
However, the judicial processes continued and the politician was summoned by justice at the end of 2023 to respond to another case of corruption associated with the management of funds after the earthquake that had occurred in the province of Manabí seven years earlier.
The role of Mexico
Caption,
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, ordered the severing of diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
Glas then sought diplomatic refuge in the Mexican embassy.
“There has been political persecution since 2017, recently escalated by the State Attorney General who arbitrarily intends to prosecute and detain Jorge Glas, even though he is an innocent person,” his then lawyer told the Reuters news agency.
Since that moment, the Ecuadorian authorities had tried different legal mechanisms for the Mexican government to hand over the former vice president and for him to respond to justice.
Until the early hours of this Saturday, when a group of uniformed officers irregularly entered the diplomatic headquarters and removed the vice president, in a maneuver without precedent in diplomatic relations between both countries.
After the assault, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, ordered the suspension of diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
“This is a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico,” said the Mexican president.
From Boy Scout to Vice President
Glas Espinel was born in 1969 in the city of Guayaquil, the second most important in the country.
It was in that city, when he entered the Cristóbal Colón school, where he would meet the person who would be fundamental in his career, Rafael Correa, a Guayaquil native like him.
It turns out that the establishment promoted a Boys Scout group, which Correa also attended as a child.
After meeting each other, they began a friendship that lasted beyond their school days.
Glas graduated as an Electrical Engineer, married and had two children.
And although over the years he was linked to Correa in different political campaigns, he did not hold public office.
But that changed in January 2007, when Correa became president of Ecuador, and immediately called on Glas to help him manage the country’s Solidarity Fund, an institution that sought to invest the profits generated by several public companies. telephone and electricity in social projects.
That fund was liquidated by Glas himself in 2010.
Soon, both his closeness with the president and his management led him to other relevant public positions such as the Ministry of Telecommunications.
Caption,
Jorge Glas was considered the right-hand man of former president Rafael Correa.
However, there is a fundamental appointment in this story: in April 2010 he was placed in charge of the portfolio of Coordinator of Strategic Sectors, a kind of super-ministry that covered the functions of several offices: the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy, the of Non-Renewable Natural Resources, Telecommunications, the Information Society and the National Water Secretariat.
Then, in 2012, Rafael Correa offered him to be his vice-presidential formula in the elections of that year, in which they achieved victory.
Court battles
In 2016, faced with the impossibility of running for a third term, Correa managed to get his two vice presidents, Lenín Moreno and Jorge Glas, to go to the polls together.
The formula works: Moreno is elected president and Glas continues as vice president.
However, problems will immediately begin for Glas: in the first months, various accusations are made known in Correa’s entourage for allegedly having received bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht close to US$35 million to favor the allocation of several fundamental projects of infrastructure.
Among these works, the construction of a multi-pipeline, the Pacific refinery, and the Manduriacu hydroelectric project, in the north of the country, stand out.
In December 2017, after several months of political tensions, Glas was sentenced – in a trial that also involved Correa and other members of his government – to serve two sentences: one of six years for the crime of illicit association and another of eight. for the crime of bribery.
Both sentences were combined and Glas had to serve eight years behind bars.
That led Correa to exile, who from Belgium, where he currently resides, has denounced political persecution against him and his Citizen Revolution Movement party.
Glas, after being removed from the vice presidency, surrendered to the authorities in January 2018.
Caption,
Glas was convicted of corruption in 2017.
Four years later, Glas achieved parole thanks to a habeas corpus that he presented and which, despite several setbacks, was finally accepted in November 2022.
But when he was summoned to appear for another case, he made the decision to request asylum at the Mexican embassy.
And tensions between Ecuador and Mexico began to arise.
In early 2024, the Ecuadorian government had warned that it would not grant Glas safe passage to leave the country.
Ecuador redoubled its commitment to bring Glas to justice: in March it made a request to the Mexican government to hand over Glas, so that he could answer for his pending issues with justice.
Mexico refused. Alicia Bárcena, Mexican foreign minister, responded that allowing the police to enter “would violate the diplomatic immunity of her embassy.”
And this week, the government of Ecuador took two steps that brought tensions to an unprecedented crisis: first it declared the Mexican ambassador in Quito, Raquel Serur Smeke, persona “non grata”, and then carried out the police raid that ended with the capture de Glas and the breakdown of relationships.
According to a statement from the government of Quito, Glas was placed at the disposal of the competent authorities so that the judicial proceedings against him can be carried out.
Furthermore, the official text accused the Mexican embassy of having “abused immunities and privileges” and denounced that the diplomatic asylum granted to Glas was “contrary to the conventional legal framework.”
“Ecuador is a sovereign country and we are not going to allow any criminal to go unpunished,” the statement concludes.
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