Guayaquil (Ecuador).– An Ecuadorian judge denied this Sunday the request of former correista Vice President Jorge Glas, convicted of corruption crimes, to leave the maximum security prison where he is held to be admitted to a hospital where he can receive treatment for his illnesses.
Magistrate Jean Valverde declared the habeas corpus corrective claim filed by the defense of the former politician inadmissible, who during a hearing held on Friday assured that he suffers “cruel and degrading treatment”, that he lives a “systematic psychological torture”, that he does not receive adequate medical attention and that some of his medications have run out.
According to the judge, based on the evidence presented in the proceedings, “there is no violation of constitutional rights to personal integrity, health and other related rights” of the former vice president, a decision that was appealed by his lawyer.
Last Saturday, Dr. Alejandro Barreto, who has been monitoring Glas’s health, presented a report he prepared within the framework of the precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the provisional measures issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court), in which he concludes that the former vice president needs “immediate, non-deferrable hospitalization in a specialized external center.”
Barreto indicated that Glas suffers from 18 illnesses or injuries, including high blood pressure, fibromyalgia, bronchial asthma, chronic sinusitis, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic atrophic gastritis, for which he must take at least twenty-one medications each day.
He affirmed that the application of so many medications can cause damage to his liver and even ventricular fibrillation, which, he assured, is “highly mortal”.
However, officials from the Ministry of Health pointed out that Glas has received 40 medical attentions since his arrival at the new maximum security prison on November 10, and that he does not need to be transferred to a hospital.
Doctor Heider Retamozo, who works in the maximum security prison, said that the last medical attention received by the former vice president was on Friday, that Glas’s body mass is “adequate” and that although he has a palliative illness “he can lead a normal life” if he takes care of himself.
The Ministry of the Interior and the National Service for Comprehensive Care for Adults Deprived of Liberty (Snai) stated that there was no violation of the constitutional rights of the former vice president, that the prison has the necessary infrastructure to attend to him, and that it is “a first-class establishment” for habitability.
The former vice president was transferred to the new maximum-security prison, an emblem of President Daniel Noboa and located in the coastal province of Santa Elena, along with leaders of criminal gangs from La Roca prison, where he had been held since 2024, after being arrested in the assault ordered by Noboa on the Mexican Embassy in Quito to forcibly remove him, when he had already received asylum.
He was one of the strong men in the government of former President Rafael Correa (2007 – 2017) and three convictions for corruption offenses weigh on him, the last one, of 13 years in prison, imposed in June for embezzlement (misappropriation of public funds) committed during the reconstruction process of the areas affected by the 2016 earthquake.
