Former Vice President Jorge Glas requests asylum in Mexico

2023-12-22 06:57:19

The former vice president of Ecuador Jorge Glas (2013-2018), who is as a “guest” at the Mexican Embassy in Quito, requested asylum in that country, his lawyer, Eduardo Franco Loor, confirmed to EFE this Thursday.

“He has already requested asylum,” said the lawyer without further details when asked this Thursday about the decision that he had anticipated would be finalized on Wednesday.

The lawyer had indicated that the request would be made because he considered that Glas is a politically persecuted person and that he has suffered an “illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional attack” by the Prosecutor’s Office.

Glas, who was vice president during part of the Governments of Rafael Correa and Lenín Moreno, entered the diplomatic legation last weekend at a time when the Prosecutor’s Office had requested his appearance for investigations in the case called ‘Reconstruction’.

Franco Loor said that the Prosecutor’s Office has a position of “political revanchism, of revenge” because the Correista political movement Revolución Ciudadana, to which de Glas belongs, presented in the National Assembly the request for political prosecution for the head of the Public Ministry, Diana Salazar.

“She (Salazar), in a desire for retaliation, has continued and increased the political persecution against Jorge Glas,” Franco Loor said Wednesday.

The lawyer had advanced that Glas – against whom Salazar assures that there is no prison order – would request asylum “under the Caracas Diplomatic Asylum Convention of 1954.”

‘Reconstruction’ case

Glas, who served as vice president between 2013 and 2018, was in prison for a conviction in a conspiracy case related to the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht bribery scandal.

Last August, Glas said that he would seek to reverse that conviction after Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court annulled the evidence used against him in the Odebrecht case, a matter that also affected other Brazilian politicians, from several Latin American countries and from other parts of the world. world.

Franco Loor has insisted that his client is a “politically persecuted person” when referring to the ‘Reconstruction’ case, which the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating. related to the alleged existence of abuse of public money for the benefit of third parties, natural and legal personswho were contractors and inspectors of contracts, signed within the framework of the emergency due to the earthquake of April 16, 2016.

This Thursday, the plenary session of the National Assembly (Parliament) refused to authorize the criminal trial against Glas in the ‘Reconstruction’ case, since the Chamber did not obtain the 92 votes (two thirds) that were required.

Upon learning of the Assembly’s decision, the Prosecutor’s Office assured that “the authorization” of that body is not necessary because, although the alleged acts would have been committed when Glas was vice president, the process began later.

For this reason, he announced that he will insist on his request for a date and time for the hearing to formulate charges in the Manabí “Reconstruction” case.

Safe passage

Franco Loor indicated on Wednesday that they hope that the safe-conduct document will be delivered so that Glas can travel to Mexico since the aforementioned Convention indicates that the delivery of that document is “mandatory.”

Likewise, he noted that the Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboa, “has said that he and his Government are not going to lend themselves to political persecution.”

“He said it in the electoral campaign and now that he is acting president, we hope that he keeps his word because Ecuador has always been respectful of international treaties and the regulations that govern in this regard,” he concluded.