US Bans Correa and Jorge Glass for Corruption!
Ecuador's former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) speaks during an interview with EFE on 25 June 2024, in Caracas (Venezuela). EFE/ Miguel GutiƩrrez

US Bans Correa and Jorge Glass for Corruption!

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Washington, Oct 9 (EFE).-

The United States announced Wednesday that it had issued visa bans for Ecuador’s former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and former vice-president Jorge Glas due to their involvement in corruption cases.

ā€œCorrea and Glas abused their positions as former president of Ecuador and former vice president of Ecuador, respectively, by accepting bribes, including through political contributions, in exchange for granting favorable government contracts,ā€ State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Miller added that “the United States stands with Ecuadorians, including members of civil society, law enforcement, and investigative journalists, who are committed to increasing government transparency and holding corrupt public officials accountable”.

In 2020, a court in Ecuador found former president Rafael Correa guilty of corruption and sentenced him to eight years in prison in the so-called “2012-2016 Bribery Case.”

The case concerned a corruption scheme that involved payments to finance the former president’s political movement, Alianza PaĆ­s, in exchange for the award of millions of dollars in contracts under the Correa government and involved national and international companies such as Brazil’s Odebrecht.

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Former vice-president Jorge Glas was also found guilty of instigating the crime of aggravated passive bribery and was also sentenced to eight years in prison.

Correa, who governed from 2007 to 2017 as one of the leading figures of the Latin American left, has been living in Belgium, which granted him political asylum in 2022 allowing him to avoid prison in Ecuador.

Glas was a minister and vice president during the government of Rafael Correa, with whom he has been friends since his youth, and during the first months of LenĆ­n Moreno’s term (2017-2021).

The former vice president had been convicted of illicit association (related to the bribery scheme of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht) and bribery (for the illegal financing of his political movement), as well as another conviction related to embezzlement in the reconstruction of the coastal province of ManabĆ­ after the 2016 earthquake.

After serving part of his prison sentence and later being released, Glas entered the Mexican Embassy in Quito in December 2023, when the Public Prosecutor’s Office issued a search and arrest warrant in the embezzlement case.

He was arrested in April when Ecuadorian security forces raided the Mexican embassy in Quito, where he had sought asylum.

Glas and Correa claim to be victims of lawfare, and political persecution through the legal system. EFE

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