[Síguenos ahora también en WhatsApp. Da clic aquí] Government Ecuador confirmed that “Granting diplomatic asylum to Jorge Glas is illegal”former Vice President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), and who will not provide safe passage leave the country, as indicated last April when Ecuadorian security forces attacked the Mexican embassy in Quito to seize him and transfer him to the country’s maximum-security prison.

The ratification came a day after the Mexican government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), asked the Ecuadorian government to ensure safe passage to Glas, asking that it be delivered and transferred to a third country in accordance with Article XIX of the Caracas Convention.

When asked about this, representatives of the Communications Department of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that they were repeating what was mentioned in the statement of April 5.

What is Jorge Glas accused of?

In the letter, he stressed that for Ecuador, “it is legally clear that granting diplomatic asylum is illegal” to Glas, who has not yet completed his visa application eight years in prison for two convictions for corruption(bribery and illegal association) and is currently under investigation on suspicion of embezzlement (theft of public funds).

“Therefore,” he adds, “Ecuador reiterates that it will not grant any safe passage, since this is not appropriate” under the 1965 Diplomatic Asylum and 1933 Political Asylum Conventions, to which Ecuador and Mexico are parties.

Glas, who was one of the influential people in the Correa government, of which he was vice president from 2013 to 2017, and also at the beginning of Lenin Moreno’s personal mandate (2017-2021), He has always denied the charges against him. and he declared himself politically persecuted and a victim of the “law.”

Jorge Glas’s Health Status

On Monday, Mexico also demanded that while the aforementioned protective order is being issued, the necessary humanitarian measures be taken so that Glas “is released and guarded in a safe place in response to Critical health condition reported“.

In a statement, SRE said that, based on the agreement signed with Switzerland on June 15, 2024, to protect Mexico’s interests in Ecuador, “the Government of Mexico has formally requested the Government of Ecuador to grant a letter of protection in favor of Mr. Jorge David Glas Espinel, a Mexican asylum seeker, in accordance with Articles IX, XII and XIII of the 1954 Convention on Diplomatic Asylum (Caracas Convention), an international treaty binding on Mexico and Ecuador.”

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday that, as part of Mexico’s “tradition” of granting asylum, his government had asked Ecuador to grant Glas safe passage so he could be released from prison and taken to a third country.

“We are in the best position to get this, it is part of our tradition in foreign policy, to protect persecuted politicians from any country in the world, it has always been done,” he said.