By The Opinion
10 Oct 2024, 01:01 AM EDT
The United States announced that it banned former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and former Vice President Jorge Glas from entering the country. whom he accuses of being involved in corruption cases.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement that Correa and Glas “are not eligible to enter the United States due to their involvement in significant acts of corruption during their tenure.”
According to the State Department, Correa and Glas abused their positions by accepting bribes, including through political contributions, in exchange for awarding favorable government contracts.
In announcing the news, Miller expressed the United States’ support for all Ecuadorians who are “committed to increasing government transparency and holding corrupt public officials accountable.”
Correa, who governed from 2007 to 2017 as one of the leaders of the Latin American left, has resided since the end of his mandate in Belgium, which granted him political asylum in 2022, which has allowed him to avoid prison in Ecuador.
Regarding the former president, who is still very present in the political life of his country through social networks, There is a sentence of eight years in prison and disqualification for the ‘Bribes 2012-2016’ case.
Glas, who was one of the strong men of the Correa Government, was arrested on April 5 during the attack by Ecuadorian security forces on the Mexican embassy in Quito, where he had requested asylum.
Glas was then subject to an arrest warrant and preventive detention in the case of the reconstruction works after the strong earthquake of 2016.where he is accused of embezzlement of public funds.
After the announcement, Correa himself once again vindicated his innocence in the face of the sentence of eight years in prison and political disqualification that was imposed on him in 2020 for bribery in the ‘Bribery 2012-2016’ case, where both he and several of his collaborators were condemned for the irregular financing of Alianza País, the official political movement at that time.
“Human evil… they ignore that no one in the world has accepted the sentence for ‘psychic influence’ and that five countries have given political asylum to those involved in the Bribery Case. “They even involve my family. There is no right!” expressed Correa.
In another subsequent message, Correa launched several “hypotheses of this new idiocy made by the gringos”, among which he mentioned a possible revenge “for what happened to (Julian Assange)”, founder of WikiLeaks to whom Ecuador gave asylum in its embassy in London. while he was required by the American Justice.
Keep reading:
– The OAS supports Mexico after the raid by the Ecuadorian police on its Embassy in Quito
– Mexico suspended diplomatic relations with Ecuador after the assault on its embassy in Quito
– Mexico grants political asylum to former Ecuadorian vice president accused of corruption