International

Former Vice President Glas leaves the hospital and returns to Ecuador’s maximum security prison

Former Vice President of Ecuador Jorge Glas, arrested last Friday after a police raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito, was imprisoned again after recovering in a hospital from a decompensation that a police party attributes to a possible overdose of medicines and that the penitentiary authorities relate to his refusal to eat food.

The National Service of Integral Care for Adults Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the state’s prison agency, indicated that it “has just entered the Deprivation of Liberty Center” of La Roca, the country’s maximum security prison.

The former vice president was under observation at the Naval hospital in the city of Guayaquil, according to the SNAI in its statement.

According to the evaluations carried out, “at the moment it has stable health parameters and within the normal range, so you can receive the corresponding medical discharge,” he said in the letter.

The penitentiary agency had advanced that in the course of this Tuesday, in “strict compliance with security protocols,” Glas will return to La Roca, where he was detained after his detention at the Mexican embassy.

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Glas’s lawyer, Andrés Villegas, considered the SNAI statement succinct and complained about the lack of official information about the real situation around Glas’s health breakdown that occurred on Monday.

This is because a police party – to which Glas’s defense had access – mentions an alleged drug poisoning, while the SNAI refers to a decompensation for the lack of food intake.

Villegas told EFE that they expect to receive official information about the situation of Glas, who was a minister and vice president during the presidential term of Rafael Correa (2007-2017), with whom he has been friends since his youth. He was also vice president of Lenín Moreno (2017-2021) in the first months of his term.

Glas, who had entered the Mexican Embassy in Quito last December, asked the Mexican State for asylum, which granted it last Friday, and hours later the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, ordered the police assault on the diplomatic headquarters to stop him, which caused the breakdown of relations by Mexico.

The assault on the embassy has received international condemnation. Ecuador justifies its action for the fight against corruption.

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Glas is being prosecuted for embezzlement of funds in a case about the reconstruction of Manabí. In addition, he must complete an eight-year sentence for two other cases, after having been in prison for nearly five years between 2017 and 2022.

International

Peruvian presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra dies in campaign road accident

Presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra, representing the Partido de los Trabajadores y Emprendedores (PTE) in Peru, died in a traffic accident while traveling to a campaign event, local authorities confirmed Sunday.

Becerra, who also served as president of the centrist political party, ranked among the lowest in opinion polls in a crowded field of more than 30 candidates competing in the presidential election scheduled for April 12.

Recent surveys place Rafael López Aliaga at the top of voter preferences.

The accident occurred near the town of Ayacucho, in southern Peru, when the vehicle carrying the candidate overturned for reasons that remain under investigation.

“The candidate Becerra has died,” Balvin Huamani, mayor of the district of Pilpichaca, told RPP radio.

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According to Huamani, he personally transported the 61-year-old candidate to a local health center, where doctors confirmed his death.

The Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE) expressed condolences over Becerra’s passing and wished a speedy recovery to the three people who were traveling with him and were injured in the crash.

International

Noboa intensifies anti-cartel crackdown as violence persists in Ecuador

A close ally of Washington, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has pursued a hardline security strategy against cocaine cartels for more than two years, yet homicide, disappearance and extortion rates remain high across the country.

Between Sunday night and the morning of March 31, Ecuador’s armed forces will launch a “very strong offensive” with “advisory support” from the United States, Interior Minister John Reimberg announced Tuesday.

The government has kept details of the operation confidential and has not confirmed whether U.S. troops will be deployed on Ecuadorian soil, as has occurred at times during Noboa’s administration.

As part of the security measures, residents in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, and El Oro will be subject to a nightly curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time for the next two weeks.

“We are in a war,” Reimberg said, urging citizens to remain indoors. “Do not take risks. Stay home and allow the security forces and our allies to do the work that must be done.”

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Although Ecuador does not produce cocaine, it has become a major departure point for drugs heading to the United States. Meanwhile, the violence associated with trafficking has increasingly affected the local population.

Bordering the world’s largest cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has gone from being considered a relatively peaceful country to recording one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America—52 killings per 100,000 inhabitants—according to the **Observatory of Organized Crime.

International

Peruvian presidential candidate proposes death penalty amid crime surge

Peru is facing an unprecedented surge in crime ahead of its presidential election scheduled for April 12, with violence fueled by extortion networks and a wave of contract killings linked to organized crime.

Police data show that 2,200 homicides tied to organized crime were recorded in 2025, while extortion complaints increased by 19%, underscoring the growing security crisis in the South American nation.

Amid this backdrop, presidential candidate Álvarez has proposed reinstating the death penalty if elected, arguing that extreme measures are needed to curb the violence.

To implement the proposal, Álvarez said Peru would withdraw from the American Convention on Human Rights—also known as the Pact of San José—which the country signed in 1978. The agreement prevents member states that have abolished capital punishment from reinstating it.

Currently, Peruvian law only allows the death penalty in cases of treason during wartime.

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“We have to leave the Pact of San José and apply the death penalty in Peru because those miserable criminals don’t deserve to live,” Álvarez told AFP during a campaign stop at a market in Callao, the port city neighboring Lima.

“An iron fist against those criminals,” he added, proposing to declare hitmen as military targets.

During the campaign event, Álvarez walked through stalls selling vegetables, groceries, and fish, greeting vendors while musicians played cumbia music nearby.

The 62-year-old candidate, who spent more than four decades working in television as a comedian, is a newcomer to politics and is running for president under the País para Todos party.

Polls place him fifth in voter preference with nearly 4% support in a fragmented race featuring 36 candidates.