Ecuador’s Former VP Jorge Glas on Hunger Strike in Prison

Jorge Glas, the former vice president of Ecuador who has been detained for six days in that country, is on hunger strike in prison, as confirmed by his lawyer. In a video, the former second leader (2013-2018) during the government of former President Rafael Correa, claimed to have been mistreated in prison.

The former official was forcibly removed from the Mexican embassy in Quito, after Mexico granted him political asylum, in an Ecuadorian police operation that has been condemned by the Organization of American States (OAS).

Glas was hospitalized last Monday for a “medical emergency,” which, according to those close to him, was due to a suicide attempt. Yesterday, his defense lawyer, Sonia Vera, confirmed the politician’s decision to start a hunger strike to protest his detention situation.

Suicide attempt in Ecuador prison

Those close to Jorge Glas, including former president Correa, have commented on the mental health situation of the detainee. “We have confirmed that the medical emergency (last Monday) was a suicide attempt,” Rafael Correa wrote on his social networks. Glas had reportedly suffered from an overdose of medication that led to his hospitalization earlier this week.

In the video shared by his defense, Glas claims to have been mistreated by Ecuadorian authorities. “Four police officers read me my rights (…) they sat me down; I was all beaten up, they put me back to read me my rights, and I fainted. They told me, “stand up, stand up” and I tried to stand up, but I could not because of the beating they had given me,” said the former vice president.

In another video, Jorge Glas affirms “I will not give up,” denouncing all kinds of alleged police abuses while thanking the Mexican government for its attention. “The asylum did not give me freedom, but it gave me the dignity of being a politically persecuted person”, he said in the document.

Arrest for assault

On Friday last week, April 5, Ecuadorian police forces forced their way into the Mexican embassy in Quito. Jorge Glas, who served for five years as vice president of Ecuador during the presidency of Rafael Correa and the first months of his successor, Lenin Moreno, had been a refugee there since last December.

Glas faces charges of alleged corruption in his country. Already in 2020, the former vice-president was sentenced to eight years in prison for being a co-perpetrator of the crime of aggravated passive bribery. He was accused, along with Rafael Correa, of leading a criminal structure that received payments from private contractors in exchange for public sector contract awards, according to the court ruling.

Glas is currently facing charges for alleged embezzlement, i.e. misappropriation or diverting of public money to third parties. The case goes back to the handling of resources for reconstruction works in two provinces hit by an earthquake in 2016, for which the justice has issued preventive detention while the hearing is not held. This case was denounced by Jorge Glas and his political circle, but also by some analysts, as a “legal war” of Ecuador against ideological adversaries.

In this regard, the former vice president had recently been granted political asylum by Mexico, after taking refuge in the diplomatic delegation of that country in Quito. Glas had planned to travel from the embassy to Mexico last weekend, but the police raid on the embassy forestalled his departure. The event caused the rupture of relations between Mexico and Ecuador.

International condemnation

The act at the embassy was quickly attacked by Mexico: “It is an act of authoritarianism everywhere you look, and we are going to file a complaint before international organizations so that this does not happen again because it is atrocious. If international norms are not going to be respected, then we are going to live in a world of gorillas,” declared Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the OAS, held at the request of Colombia and Bolivia, issued a resolution condemning the events, while this Thursday, the case will be presented before the judges of the International Court of Justice.

Likewise, the United States condemned on Tuesday “the use of force against officials of the Mexican embassy” in Ecuador, an extreme that was appreciated by the Mexican head of state. Through the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, the United States condemned the violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on the inviolability of diplomatic headquarters. “The Ecuadorian government ignored its obligations under international law as a host state to respect (that principle, and) jeopardized the foundations of basic diplomatic norms and relations,” Sullivan said.

Similarly, the U.S. National Security Advisor stated that “we have reviewed the images from the security cameras at the Mexican embassy, and we believe that these actions were a mistake.”.