Who is Jorge Glas, the former vice president of Ecuador at the center of Mexico’s diplomatic rupture with his country

The political career of the former vice president of Ecuador Jorge Glas Espinel -the man at the center of Mexico’s rupture in relations with Quito-, is closely associated with a name: that of former president Rafael Correa.

Since his first official position, in 2007, as head of the Solidarity Fund during Correa’s first administration, Glas – 54 years old and an engineer by profession – began a meteoric career in the government and in the former president’s circles, which led him to accompany him in the presidential formula in the 2013 campaign.

LOOK: Ecuador: police invade Mexican embassy and arrest former vice president Jorge Glas

But it was also with his foray as Correa’s vice president that his problems with the law began.

After four years in office, in December 2017 Glas was sentenced to eight years in prison for receiving bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebretch, in a case that affected several governments in Latin America.

At that time Glas served as vice-president of Lenín Moreno, elected in May of that year to succeed Correa.

It was Moreno himself who confirmed, after a vote in the Ecuadorian parliament in January 2018, that Glas would no longer hold the position of vice president during his term.

At that moment he surrendered to authorities.

But after several court decisions and thanks to a habeas corpus, Glas was released on parole on November 28, 2022, when he had already served half of his sentence.

However, legal proceedings continued and the politician was summoned to court at the end of 2023 to respond to another case of corruption associated with the management of funds following the earthquake that occurred in the province of Manabí seven years earlier.

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, ordered the severing of diplomatic relations with Ecuador. (Getty Images).

Mexico’s role

Glas then sought diplomatic refuge at the Mexican embassy.

“There has been political persecution since 2017, recently intensified by the State Attorney General, who intends to arbitrarily prosecute and detain Jorge Glas, despite him being an innocent person,” his then lawyer told the Reuters news agency.

Since that moment, Ecuadorian authorities have tried different legal mechanisms for the Mexican government to hand over the former vice president and for him to face justice.

Until the early hours of this Saturday, when a group of uniformed police officers irregularly entered the diplomatic headquarters and removed the vice president, in an unprecedented maneuver in diplomatic relations between the two countries.

After the assault, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered the suspension of diplomatic relations with Ecuador.

“This is a flagrant violation of international law and Mexico’s sovereignty,” said the Mexican president.

From Boy Scout to Vice President

Glas Espinel was born in 1969 in the city of Guayaquil, the second most important in the country.

It was in that city, upon entering the Cristóbal Colón school, that he would meet the person who would be fundamental in his career, Rafael Correa, a native of Guayaquil like him.

It turns out that the establishment promoted a boy scout group, which Correa also attended as a child.

After meeting, they began a friendship that lasted beyond their school days.

Glas graduated as an Electrical Engineer, got married and had two children.

And although over the years he has been linked to Correa in several political campaigns, he has not held public office.

But That changed in January 2007, when Correa became president. of Ecuador, and immediately called Glas to help him manage the country’s Solidarity Fund, an institution that sought to invest the profits generated by several public telephone and electricity companies in social projects.

This fund was liquidated by Glas himself in 2010.

Therefore, both his proximity to the president and his management led him to other relevant public positions, such as the Ministry of Telecommunications.

Jorge Glas was considered the right-hand man of former president Rafael Correa. (GET IMAGES).

However, there is a fundamental appointment in this story: in April 2010 he was placed in charge of the role of Coordinator of Strategic Sectors, a kind of super-ministry that encompassed the functions of several offices: the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energies, that of Natural Resources Renewables, Telecommunications, the Information Society and the National Water Secretariat.

Then, in 2012, Rafael Correa offered him to be his vice-presidential formula in that year’s elections, in which they won.

Court battles

In 2016, faced with the impossibility of running for a third term, Correa managed to get his two vice-presidents, Lenín Moreno and Jorge Glas, to go to the polls together.

The formula works: Moreno is elected president and Glas remains vice president.

However, problems began immediately for Glas: in the first months, several accusations were made public in Correa’s entourage for allegedly receiving bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht close to 35 million dollars to favor the allocation of several fundamental infrastructure projects.

Among these works, the following stand out: the construction of a multiduct, the Pacific refinery, and the Manduriacu hydroelectric project, in the north of the country.

In December 2017, after several months of political tension, Glas was sentenced – in a trial that also involved Correa and other members of his government – ​​to serve two sentences: one of six years for the crime of illicit association and another of eight for the crime of illicit association and another of eight for the crime of illicit association. the crime of bribery.

Both sentences were combined and Glas had to serve eight years behind bars.

This led to Correa’s exile, who from Belgium, where he currently resides, denounced the political persecution against him and his Citizen Revolution Movement party.

Glas, after being removed from the vice presidency, surrendered to authorities in January 2018.

Glas was accused of several counts of corruption as part of his role as the country’s vice president. (Getty Images).

Four years later, Glas was granted parole thanks to a habeas corpus he presented and which, despite several setbacks, was finally accepted in November 2022.

But when he was summoned to appear in another case, He made the decision to request asylum at the Mexican embassy.

And tensions between Ecuador and Mexico began to emerge.

In early 2024, the Ecuadorian government warned that it would not grant Glas safe passage to leave the country.

Ecuador redoubled its commitment to bringing Glas to justice: in March it made a request to the Mexican government to hand Glas over, so that he could answer for his pending issues before the courts.

Mexico refused. Alicia Bárcena, Mexico’s foreign minister, responded that allowing police entry would “violate the diplomatic immunity of its embassy.”

And this week, the government of Ecuador took two measures that brought tensions to an unprecedented crisis: first it declared the Mexican ambassador in Quito, Raquel Serur Smeke, persona “non grata”, and then it carried out the police operation that ended with the capture of Glas and the breakdown of relationships.

According to a statement from the Quito government, Glas was made available to the competent authorities so that the legal process against him could be carried out.

Furthermore, the official text accused the Mexican embassy of having “abused immunities and privileges” and denounced that the diplomatic asylum granted to Glas was “contrary to the conventional legal framework”.

“Ecuador is a sovereign country and we will not allow any criminal to go unpunished,” the statement concludes.

Source: Elcomercio