George Glass

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)based in Washingtonurged this Monday Ecuador to protect the life of the former vice president Jorge Glasheld in a maximum security prison since April 6 after the violent raid by the Ecuadorian Police on the Embassy of Mexico in Quito.

The IACHR expressed in a statement “its concern about the events related to the intrusion of the Mexican Embassy in Quito” and called for “observance of international standards on the inviolability of diplomatic missions and those governing diplomatic asylum in the region”.

Likewise, it urged Ecuador “to adopt the necessary measures to protect the rights to life and personal integrity of Jorge Glas, beneficiary of precautionary measures granted by the IACHR.”

The Inter-American Commission recalled that on December 31, 2019, it decided to “grant precautionary measures in favor of Mr. Jorge David Glas Espinel under the terms of Article 25 of its Regulations.”

On that occasion, he asked the Ecuadorian State to adopt “the necessary measures to protect the rights to life and personal integrity” of Glas, who was vice president between 2013 and 2017, during the presidential term of Rafael Correa (2007-2017), and also at the beginning of the mandate of Lenin Moreno (2017-2021).

The IACHR had ordered Ecuador to apply the “most appropriate” measures to the personal circumstances of Glas, who had requested the intervention of the IACHR a year earlier when he was in prison for two final convictions for bribery and illicit association.

The Inter-American Commission sought to “protect the rights” of Glas, who then required “medical treatment and attention” since he was “supposedly exposed to threats within the penitentiary center.”

In its writing this Monday, the IACHR assures that the Ecuadorian State “has periodically reported on the implementation of the precautionary measures ordered by the Commission, but stressed that, “although the circumstances of Mr. Jorge Glas have changed, the precautionary measures remain in force. till the date”.

Furthermore, the IACHR announced that it has taken note of the resolution condemning the Ecuadorian police intrusion of the Mexican Embassy in Quito, issued on April 10 by the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS)of which it is a part.

The OAS declaration also calls for recognizing the importance of respecting the inviolability of diplomatic headquarters and “complying with their obligations under the Vienna Convention and the Convention of Diplomatic Asylum of 1954«.

Glas was at the Mexican Embassy in Quito since December 17 and days later he requested asylum to be recognized as politically persecuted, rejecting all the accusations and sentences against him, which he describes as ‘lawfare’ (use of judicial apparatus against political adversaries). In recent months, Glas’s name has been mentioned in investigations by the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office that link him to organized crime agents such as the deceased drug trafficker. Leandro ‘El Patrón’ Norerowho would have paid bribes to influence Justice and obtain the freedom of the former vice president.

Subsequently, his capture and placement in preventive detention was ordered in the case of the reconstruction works after the strong earthquake of 2016, where he is accused of alleged embezzlement.

Additionally, he still had to finish serving an eight-year sentence for convictions of bribery and corruption that he did not finish serving when he was released from prison at the end of 2022 thanks to a judicial resolution of precautionary measures.

The forced entry into the Mexican Embassy, ​​when Glas had already received asylum, has been declared illegal and arbitrary by an Ecuadorian court, and the Mexican Government has broken off relations with the Andean country and has denounced it to the international Court of Justice of Hague for considering international law and its national sovereignty violated. EFE (I)