(Quito) The United States on Wednesday banned former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and his vice-president Jorge Glas from entering its territory due to their involvement in a “significant corruption case,” the department said of American state.
The two ex-leaders are “ineligible for entry into the United States due to their involvement in a significant corruption case when they held public office,” the department justified in a press release.
The decision also applies to their “direct relatives”, such as their spouses and adult children, specifies a press release published by the Washington embassy in Quito.
The former socialist president (2007-2017) was sentenced in absentia in 2020 to eight years in prison for corruption in Ecuador – and is therefore ineligible – and today lives in exile in Belgium. He frequently shares his views on the situation in his native country online.
Mr. Glas is incarcerated in a high security prison in the southwest of the country. He is accused of embezzlement and corruption.
Subject to an arrest warrant, he was arrested last April during a police raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito, where he had found refuge, which led to a diplomatic crisis between Ecuador and Mexico .
Rafael Correa, who has always been very critical of Washington during his 10 years at the head of Ecuador, judged that the accusations against him were unfounded and that the United States’ decision was unfair.