Authorities discovered a former Ecuadorean vice chairman, Jorge Glas, in a “deep self-induced coma” in jail on Monday, simply days after he was captured by the police in a dramatic arrest contained in the Mexican embassy in Quito.
Mr. Glas ingested anti-depressants and sedatives, in keeping with a police report, and was being transferred to a army hospital for remark.
The former vice chairman faces a cost of embezzlement in Ecuador, and he had sought refuge in the Mexican embassy in an try and keep away from arrest. He turned the topic of a diplomatic scuffle final week when police in Quito entered the embassy and efficiently captured him, ultimately transferring him to a detention middle in the massive port metropolis of Guayaquil.
A 1961 diplomatic treaty says that governments can’t enter overseas embassies with out permission from the embassy’s host nation, establishing a line that has been crossed solely on uncommon events.
Ecuador’s new president, Daniel Noboa, has been keen to seem powerful on crime amid a rising safety disaster in the area, and he has defended the decision to detain Mr. Glas, calling him a felony, not a political prisoner.
On Monday, simply because the information of Mr. Glas’ overdose broke, Mr. Noboa reiterated this position, saying that he had an “obligation” to arrest individuals like Mr. Glas or the nation would face “the imminent risk of their escape.”
“Ecuador is a country of peace and justice,” he continued, “which respects all nations and international law.”
Mr. Glas is a longtime ally of former president Rafael Correa, serving as his vice chairman below Mr. Correa from 2013 to 2017. (Mr. Noboa defeated a Correa ally in a presidential election final 12 months.)
In 2017, Mr. Glas was discovered responsible of receiving bribes from Odebrecht, a world building large, and sentenced to 6 years in jail.
In 2020, he was embroiled in a second bribery case, together with Mr. Correa, and given a further eight-year sentence.
In 2022, Mr. Glas was launched early from jail, however then confronted a 3rd cost of embezzlement, and requested for asylum from Mexico final December.
On Monday night, attorneys, members of the family and political allies of Mr. Glas stood exterior the Naval Hospital in Guayaquil, the place they stated he was being held.
His attorneys say that he’s being persecuted for his politics. At the hospital, considered one of them, Marcel Orellana, stated that they’d been denied entry to see him.
“The continuity of persecution is clear,” Mr. Orellana stated, “even with his deteriorating state of health. Basic guarantees, such as the right to defense, are being broken and the world and all of Ecuador have to know this.”
Genevieve Glatsky contributed from Bogotá, Colombia.
