Authorities discovered a former Ecuadorean vp, 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 had ingested anti-depressants and sedatives, in response to a police report, and was being transferred to a army hospital for remark.
By Monday evening, Ecuador’s jail authority, often known as the SNAI, mentioned in an announcement that Mr. Glas, 54, was in secure situation.
The assertion added that he was within the hospital due to his refusal to eat meals throughout the previous 24 hours, an obvious contradiction to the police report of an overdose. The SNAI mentioned that he would stay beneath remark earlier than returning to jail.
The previous vp faces a cost of embezzlement in Ecuador, and he had sought refuge within the Mexican embassy in an try and keep away from arrest. He grew to become 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 heart within the giant port metropolis of Guayaquil.
A 1961 diplomatic treaty says that governments can’t enter international 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 look robust on crime amid a rising safety disaster within the area, and he has defended the choice to detain Mr. Glas, calling him a prison, not a political prisoner.
On Monday, simply because the information of Mr. Glas’ overdose broke, Mr. Noboa reiterated this place, saying that he had an “obligation” to arrest individuals like Mr. Glas or the nation would face “the approaching threat of their escape.”
“Ecuador is a rustic of peace and justice,” he continued, “which respects all nations and worldwide regulation.”
Mr. Glas is a longtime ally of former president Rafael Correa, serving as his vp from 2013 to 2017. (Mr. Noboa defeated a Correa ally in a presidential election final yr.)
In 2017, Mr. Glas was discovered responsible of receiving bribes from Odebrecht, a global 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 mentioned he was being held.
His attorneys say that he’s being persecuted for his politics. On the hospital, one in every of them, Marcel Orellana, mentioned that they’d been denied entry to see him.
“The continuity of persecution is evident,” Mr. Orellana mentioned, “even along with his deteriorating state of well being. Fundamental ensures, similar to the fitting to protection, are being damaged and the world and all of Ecuador need to know this.”
Genevieve Glatsky contributed reporting from Bogotá, Colombia.
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