Jorge Glas, guarded by police officers upon his entry into La Roca prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador on April 7, 2024. Photo: Alina Manrique/El Pais/file photo.
Jorge Glas, who for a decade embodied the power of the strategic sectors of Correísmo (the political current of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa), is fighting his legal battles in confinement. Since November 2025, he has been held in El Encuentro prison, facing a legal system that seems to definitively close all doors to freedom.
Despite a new hearing requested by his defense to review his detention conditions being scheduled for April 2026, Glas’ legal reality is a complex crossroads. His file is a mix of convictions, ongoing processes, and an intense technical debate about the calculation of his sentences. This situation keeps him a prisoner, although his presence in public debate has weakened amid new security crises affecting Ecuador.
The concurrence of crimes
“The case of Jorge Glas is very interesting for discussing something in criminal law called the concurrence of crimes,” explained Ecuadorian criminal lawyer Leonel Córdova Ortega to Sputnik.
Currently, Glas faces two parallel criminal realities. “He is serving an enforceable sentence of eight years, which was unified for the illicit association case, known as the Odebrecht case, and also for the bribes case,” detailed Nicolás Díaz Torres, an Ecuadorian specialist in criminal law in complex criminality, to Sputnik.
The current legal conflict lies in the calculation of his imprisonment. While the former vice president’s team of advisors argues that this time has already expired and requests his release, the state maintains the opposite.
“According to his defense, he would have already completed the entire sentence. However, according to government authorities and the Prosecutor’s Office, he would have approximately six months left to serve,” Díaz Torres specified. Yet, even if a court were to agree with the defense when adding and subtracting the time he actually spent in prison, the prison doors will not open for him.
“Regardless of whether he has finished serving or not, he will not be able to regain his freedom because he has a preventive detention order in the Manabí Reconstruction case,” Córdova Ortega clarified.
This case involves a judicial process for embezzlement related to the misuse of over $200 million collected through the Solidarity Law after the 2016 earthquake.
“If the Manabí Reconstruction case ends with an enforceable sentence, then inevitably Jorge Glas will have to serve the 13 years of his sentence that remain,” Córdova concluded.
The battle for his health
Given the factual and legal impossibility of obtaining short-term freedom, Glas’ team has taken a clear turn in legal strategy. The defense argues that the country’s detention centers do not have the infrastructure or supplies to treat his medical ailments, which is why they are requesting his transfer to external health centers.
On August 20, relatives of people deprived of liberty held a protest outside El Encuentro prison, in Santa Elena, condemning the conditions in which they claim that the inmates remain. They denounced a lack of food, medicine, and medical attention, as well as alleged mistreatment. They also complained about restrictions on maintaining contact with inmates.
“Habeas corpus rulings have stated that, in extreme cases, if the capacity in social rehabilitation centers is not sufficient to provide health care, professionals would have to be brought to the centers to prevent escapes and so on. This determination blocks the path of home or hospital medical transfer, requiring the state to provide intramural care,” Córdova explained.
The assault on the Mexican embassy
On December 17, 2023, Jorge Glas sought refuge as a “guest” in the Mexican Embassy in Quito due to judicial demands against him. After almost four months in the diplomatic headquarters, the Mexican government formalized his political asylum in the morning of April 5, 2024.
That same night, Ecuadorian police and military forces forcibly entered the embassy to execute the arrest warrant against him.
The operation resulted in Mexico’s immediate rupture of diplomatic relations, the withdrawal of its accredited diplomatic personnel, and an international lawsuit against Ecuador before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for alleged violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
For the Ecuadorian administration, the measure was justified on the grounds that granting asylum to a person prosecuted for common crimes constituted an abuse of international conventions and an interference in local justice processes.
The symbolism of Glas’ case
For the specialist in complex criminality, beyond the person, the sentences against Glas fulfill a “pedagogical role” for the Ecuadorian neoliberal state apparatus. “Evidently, it is a flag in the fight against corruption,” he said.
Furthermore, the issue is important for current and previous right-wing governments opposing Correismo and the Citizen Revolution, so maintaining his conviction is not just a matter of procedural efficiency.
How USA & Israel Put Drug Cartel-Linked US Citizen in Power in Colombia
“The Jorge Glas case represented the only possible triumph against… the Correista administration. If something happens or a sentence is reversed, it would be seen as a defeat against Rafael Correa’s government,” Córdova affirmed.
(Sputnik) by Samantha Arias
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SF
