In Quito, Ecuador, a former vice president was handed a 13-year prison sentence on Monday following a contentious police operation at the Mexican embassy last year. Jorge Glas faced allegations of improperly allocating public funds meant for reconstructing two provinces hit by a devastating 2016 earthquake that claimed numerous lives and left communities in disarray. Glas ascended to the vice presidency in 2013 under then-President Rafael Correa, but his term was cut short in 2018 when he was implicated in a corruption scandal linked to the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.
Judge Mercedes Caicedo condemned the misuse of earthquake relief funds, noting that they were directed toward “useless, unusable and unnecessary buildings,” contravening the law and showing “complete disrespect for the victims.” In addition to his prison sentence, Glas was permanently barred from holding any public office and was fined $28,800.
Currently, Glas is confined in a maximum-security facility due to convictions in two separate corruption cases. His arrest in April 2024, following a dramatic police raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito hours after he had been granted asylum, provoked international outrage and drew criticism toward Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa. Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, diplomatic sites are considered inviolable, barring any host country law enforcement from entry without ambassadorial consent.
The Ecuadorian government, however, justified the actions by stressing that Glas was being sought on criminal, not political, grounds and thus did not qualify for diplomatic protection by Mexico.