Prensa Latina and Sputnik

The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 24, 2024, p. 22

Quito. Former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas said yesterday that he tried to commit suicide in April to free himself from the prison where he has been held since he was arrested during the assault on the Mexican embassy.

In a new hearing of appeal to the appeal of habeas corpusThe former vice president stated that on April 8 he took 60 pills to end his life, which is why he was transferred to two hospitals in Guayaquil.

I don’t know how they managed to revive me (…), which makes me very frustrated because I insist: I should be dead.said one of the leaders of the Citizen Revolution movement.

Glas is seeking house arrest and release from the maximum security La Roca prison. At the hearing, he stated that the medical care he receives in prison is superficial, that his health is fragile and that his human rights are not being guaranteed.

Glas was granted early release in 2022, after the unification of two prison sentences of six and eight years for the Odebrecht and Bribery cases, but the measure was revoked.

Earlier this year, the courts ordered his arrest for alleged embezzlement in the case known as Reconstruction of Manabí.

He was in the Mexican embassy in Quito from December 2023 until April 5, when uniformed officers raided the diplomatic legation to capture him by order of President Daniel Noboa, an intervention that led to the breaking of relations between both nations.

Mexico requested permission for Glas to be handed over and transferred to a third country in accordance with Article 19 of the Caracas Convention, but the Ecuadorian government rejected the request on the grounds that It is not lawful the granting of diplomatic asylum and denied him safe conduct to leave the country.