They condemn 13 years in prison for corruption to Jorge Glas, former vice president of Ecuador who was at the center of the diplomatic crisis with Mexico

- Author, Writing
- Author's title, BBC News World
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A Court of the National Court of Justice of Ecuador on Monday sentenced to 13 years in jail and disqualification for life to exercise public positions to former vice president Jorge Glas for embezzlement of public funds.

Glas embezzled these funds during the reconstruction process of the areas most affected by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that shook the Ecuadorian coast in April 2016 and left hundreds of fatal victims.

Together with Glas, he also received the same years in prison Carlos Bernal, former Technical Secretary of the Manabí Reconstruction Committee, created with the aim of implementing the most urgent works to help the population hard hit by the earthquake.

The judicial judgment determined that Glas and Bernal used their positions as president and secretary of the Committee to “abuse public money” that should be used to serve the victims in the case called Manabí reconstruction.

Judge Mercedes Caicedo, who read the sentence, indicated that the resources raised by Ecuadorians – through taxes and contributions – for reconstruction, were allocated to the creation of “unusable, unusual and unnecessary constructions under the null respect for the law of solidarity, but above all, under the zero respect to the victims of the earthquake.”

Under the position of peculation, justice determined that Glas and Bernal prioritized works of works that were not priority or related to reconstruction work, and that the urgent requirements of those affected were not met, generating damage to the state of more than US $ 225 million.

Glas is currently in a maximum security prison complying previous sentences of six and eight years in jail in two other cases of corruption, in one of which former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) was also sentenced, who is in Belgium as a political and fugitive asylum of Ecuadorian justice.

During the trial, both icing and other defendants denied the accusations.

The former vice president said before the Court had not handled funds or have benefited personally and declared himself innocent.

Glas was separated from the position of vice president at the beginning of the management of Lenín Moreno, accused of corruption in the Odebrecht case for Ecuadorian justice in January 2018.

Diplomatic conflict between Ecuador and Mexico

Glas capture in April 2024 caused a diplomatic conflict between Ecuador and Mexico.

The break came after Glas requested asylum at the Mexican embassy in Quito and a group of Ecuadorian policemen broke into the diplomatic headquarters to capture it.

Photo foot, Ecuadorian police entering the Mexico Embassy in Quito in April 2024 to arrest Jorge Glas.

After the assault, the then president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, ordered the suspension of diplomatic relations with Ecuador. “It is a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico,” said the president.

The ambassador of Mexico in Ecuador, Roberto Canseco, was at the diplomatic headquarters when the police operation began and confronted the agents.

“At the risk of my life I defended the honor and sovereignty of my country,” he told the press.

The Ecuadorian government led by Daniel Noboa accused the Mexican embassy of having “abused immunities and privileges” and denounced that diplomatic asylum granted to Glas was “contrary to the conventional legal framework.”

“Ecuador is a sovereign country and we will not allow any criminal to be impunity,” he said in a statement.

The operation in the Mexican embassy in Quito caused a wide reaction of rejection by the governments of Latin America and international organizations for considering it a violation of international instruments that regulate diplomatic relations and the right to asylum.