Orlando Perez
Special for La Jornada
The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, September 4, 2024, p. 28
Quito. The physical and mental health of former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas is deteriorating rapidly, due to the intake of more than 40 medications a day that not only cause dependency, but also other disorders and even hallucinations, explained yesterday the internist Alejandro Barreto.
During a press conference, members of the International Committee for the Freedom of Jorge Glas, including Sacha Llorenti, former president of the United Nations Security Council; Sonia Vera, Glas’s lawyer; Assemblywoman Sofía Espín, and physician Barreto, presented the clinical picture and legal situation of the political asylum seeker, now held hostage in a maximum security prison in the city of Guayaquil since April 5, following the assault on the Mexican embassy in Quito.
They also recalled that after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures to Glas in 2019, in 2022 a commission of doctors, including Barreto, was dedicated to monitoring the former vice president’s health status.
The doctor indicated that there is concern among the doctors who are following Glas’ case about his physical, mental and nutritional health, especially because his mental condition has worsened, to the point of having hallucinations. The concern of the internist lies in the intake of 43 to 45 pills a day that, although they are prescribed by psychologists and psychiatrists, could be largely avoided if therapy were performed, because they have side effects that cause more disorders and increase the symptoms.
To this he added a warning: Glas’s clinical picture is serious, especially when there has already been a suicide attempt and it is the Ministry of Public Health that must treat the case with the appropriate protocol that is required. For Barreto, the polypharmacy It is not appropriate and, according to lawyer Vera, Glas himself mentioned that there is an order to kill him little by little by ingesting drugs.
Assemblywoman Espín denounced that visits are prevented to hide the fact that the former vice president They are killing himrejected that Glas is a highly dangerous prisoner and maintained that he should not be held in La Roca, designed for prisoners with other types of conduct.
The members of the International Committee have denounced that they have been denied the delivery of reports on their state of health. In this regard, Vera is concerned because on August 23, at a hearing of habeas corpus Glas counted the number of pills he takes, to which Barreto pointed out that this is an overdose that creates dependency.
Llorenti, for his part, reiterated that taking drugs could induce a psychotic condition with a risk of suicide. He called on the International Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations to visit him. The responsibility for the health and freedom of Jorge Glas falls exclusively on President Daniel Noboa and his governmenthe stressed.
In addition to all this, a month ago the Mexican Foreign Ministry made public its request for safe conduct for Glas, in order to adopt humanitarian measures, to release him from prison and transfer him to a safe place given his reported critical state of health.
Espín explained that every time a person requests legal recourse, it is denied and if the judge wants to provide redress, he is immediately persecuted, imprisoned or dismissed.