Days after being taken into custody during a well-publicized raid of the Mexican embassy in Quito, Jorge Glas, the former vice president of Ecuador, was admitted to the hospital.
Glas was admitted to a Guayaquil hospital following a health incident, the national prison agency SNAI of the nation announced on Monday. The agency added that he got sick because he refused to consume the food that was given to him while he was being held.
After being taken to the Naval Hospital of Guayaquil by Ministry of Public Health paramedics, Glas was admitted at around 12:45 p.m.
Glas, according to SNAI, is in a stable condition and will be monitored for the next four hours before going back to jail.
The information was released as Daniel Noboa, the president of Ecuador, justified the contentious police raid on Friday that resulted in Glas’s apprehension on Monday.
At the time of the raid, Glas was requesting asylum at the embassy. He has been charged by Ecuadorian authorities with embezzling government funds intended to aid in reconstruction following a severe earthquake in 2016. After that, he was moved to Guayaquil’s maximum security La Roca prison.
He claims he is being persecuted for his political beliefs and his defense has refuted the accusations made against him. Between 2013 and 2017, Glas—who has already been found guilty twice of corruption—worked for socialist former President Rafael Correa.
In a fierce response to the raid, Mexico filed a case against Ecuador at the International Court of Justice, denouncing it as a “flagrant violation of international law” and its sovereignty. Additionally, diplomatic ties with Ecuador have been severed.President Noboa defended the raid in an open letter that was posted on X, the former Twitter, on Monday, stating that Ecuador could not bear the “imminent risk of (Glas’s) escape.”
He wrote, “We could not allow sentenced criminals involved in very serious crimes to be granted asylum. My obligation is to comply with the rulings of justice.”
“To safeguard national security, the rule of law, and the dignity of a people who reject any form of impunity for criminals, delinquents, corrupt people, or narco-terrorists, I have made extraordinary decisions,” Noboa wrote.
Noboa continued by saying he was prepared to “resolve any difference” with Mexico about the issue.
“I want to say to the brotherly people of Mexico that justice is not negotiable, that we will never shield criminals who have harmed Mexicans, and that I will always be willing to resolve any difference,” he wrote.
Not just Mexico, but several nations in the region have denounced Ecuador’s conduct.
Many Latin American nations, notably the two largest in the region, Brazil and Argentina, united with Mexico after Glas was arrested, and Nicaragua also severed diplomatic ties with the country.
A number of people cited a breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic interactions, an international agreement that establishes guidelines for diplomatic interactions between nations. Some also cited Glas’s asylum rights as being violated.
António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, has also expressed concern over the raid.
CNN has reached out to Glas’s attorneys.
