Former Ecuador VP asks for asylum in Mexico -lawyer

QUITO (Reuters) – Former Ecuadorean Vice President Jorge Glas, convicted twice for corruption, has asked Mexico for political asylum, arguing that he is being persecuted by the attorney general’s office, his lawyer said on Friday.

Glas, who was vice president under the leftist government of Rafael Correa between 2013 and 2017, has been inside the Mexican embassy in Quito as a “guest” since the weekend.

The attorney general’s office had asked Glas to meet with them about a case involving public funds collected to aid the reconstruction of coastal Manabi province after an earthquake in 2016.

“There has been a political persecution since 2017 which has scaled up recently by the attorney general, who arbitrarily is trying to process and detain Jorge Glas, who is innocent,” lawyer Eduardo Franco Loor told Reuters by phone, confirming that Glas requested asylum on Wednesday. “There is tremendous political hatred.”

The Mexican government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Glas, 54, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2017 after he was found guilty of receiving bribes from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht in exchange for awarding it government contracts.

He was given a separate eight-year prison sentence in 2020, as was Correa, for using money from contractors to finance campaigns for Correa’s political movement.

Glas has been jailed and freed repeatedly – he was last released in November 2022 after completing five years of his sentences.

Though he can move freely within Ecuador, he cannot leave the country during the remainder of his sentences.

Though the legislature on Thursday declined to authorize a trial over the Manabi case, the attorney general’s office said in a statement it was insisting on charging him.

The Ecuadorean government has said it is “judicially evident” that Glas’ request for diplomatic asylum would be invalid because of his convictions.

The Mexican government has given asylum to several former officials in Correa’s 10-year government, who have argued they are subject to political persecution.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito, additional reporting by Laura Gottesdiener in Monterrey, Mexico; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; editing by Jonathan Oatis)