Ecuador rejected Venezuela’s regime conditions requested to provide safe-conduct to the imprisoned former (Ecuadoran) Vice President Jorge Glas, in exchange for the Venezuelan government doing the same with six assilum seekers who oppose Chavismo who have taken refuge and are trapped in the Argentine embassy in Caracas, Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld said on Wednesday.
by AFP
Glas, Ecuadorian Vice President during the socialist government of Rafael Correa (2007-2017), and very close to Hugo Chávez, is imprisoned in Guayaquil (southwest) and in the middle of a diplomatic dispute between Ecuador and Mexico.
The Ecuadorian police broke into the Mexican embassy in Quito in April, where he was seeking asylum, to arrest him for a case of embezzlement.
The Ecuadorian Foreign Minister explained that between August and September she received calls from Colombia and Brazil that transmitted the Venezuelan proposal to grant safe conduct to six democratic opponents of Chavismo who had taken refuge in the Argentine diplomatic headquarters, in exchange for Ecuador doing the same with Glas.
“When this proposal was made to us, of course, Mr. President (Daniel Noboa) gave a very clear directive: here we are not in favor of impunity, here we are not in favor of corruption and here we are not allies of (Nicolás) Maduro’s regime,” said Sommerfeld in an interview with Radio Democracia.
“Faced with this proposal, Ecuador simply discarded it,” he added.
The Caracas plan was known the day before, when the Colombian Foreign Minister, Luis Gilberto Murillo, declared that his country has acted as a mediator to resolve the crisis of several months between Maduro and his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei.
Maduro broke relations with Argentina over its position on the disputed elections of July 28th, in which he was proclaimed re-elected amid allegations of fraud.
Since then, the Argentine embassy in Caracas has been guarded by Brazil. Six collaborators of the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, including her campaign manager, have been sheltered in that diplomatic headquarters since March, accused of “terrorism.”
In addition to requesting safe passage for Glas, Venezuela also proposed that Argentina release a person close to the government. “The two countries rejected this proposal from Maduro’s regime,” said Sommerfeld.
Mexico had granted asylum to former Vice President Glas, but the Government of Ecuador maintains that he is illegitimate because Glas has already been sentenced for other cases of corruption.
Since 2017, he had been serving a sentence for corruption until he was released in November 2022 thanks to an habeas corpus. A month later he took refuge in the Mexican embassy in Quito.
Following the embassy raid, Mexico sued Ecuador before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and withdrew its staff from the country. It also delegated its diplomatic representation in Quito to Switzerland.
AFP