Ecuador asks to enter the Mexican embassy to arrest the former vice president

The Ecuadorian government asked on Friday permission to enter the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas (2013-2018), who has a outstanding warrant in a corruption case.

Glas has been living in the diplomatic mission’s headquarters since December while he waits for a response to an asylum request. The Ecuadorian government highlighted that granting Glas asylum would disregard international treaties in the fight against corruption, sources of the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry told EFE.

The Ecuadorian Foreign Minister had already anticipated a few weeks ago that if Mexico grants Glas asylum, the government of President Daniel Noboa would not allow him to leave the country without being arrested. Glas spent five years and four months in prison between 2017 and 2022 after being sentenced to eight years in the ‘Bribes’ case related to the scandal of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

This case investigated irregular contributions allegedly made by state contractors in cash or crossed invoices to benefit a political movement and received by senior officials of the Rafael Correa government from 2012 to 2016, in which Correa was also disqualified and convicted. Glas was vice president from 2013 to 2018, during the terms of presidents Rafael Correa and Lenín Moreno. He was released from prison in November 2022 after the National Court of Justice annulled the conviction against him for violation of due process.