International
Justice of Ecuador revokes the ruling that declared the capture of Glas at the Embassy of Mexico illegal
An appeals court of Ecuador rejected this Friday in second instance the habeas corpus appeal that requested the immediate release of Jorge Glas, former vice president of Rafael Correa, and revoked the original ruling that described his detention within the Mexican Embassy in Quito, when the Government of this country had granted him asylum, as illegal and arbitrary.
The Specialized Administrative Litigation Chamber of the National Court of Justice agreed that Glas’s arrest, which occurred on April 5 in a police invasion of Mexico’s diplomatic headquarters condemned almost unanimously by the international community, was “legal, legitimate and not arbitrary,” according to Glas’s lawyers.
The court of first instance that reviewed the habeas corpus presented in favor of Glas had initially determined that the detention was illegal and arbitrary because the protocol of raids on foreign diplomatic delegations in Ecuador had not been respected, but kept Glas in prison pending the end of serving an eight-year prison sentence for two convictions (corruption and illicit association) in cases of corruption.
The sentence accepted the Government’s arguments, which say that the entry without permission at the Mexican Embassy in Quito sought to prevent the escape of a defendant on whom an arrest warrant weighed and who still had convictions in force.
The habeas corpus, promoted by lawyer Francisco Hidalgo, requested the Ecuadorian Justice to order the release of Glas and deliver him to Mexico or a third country willing to respect the asylum given to him by the Mexican Executive.
Glas, who rejects the charges against him and declares himself a politically persecuted, had arrived at Mexico’s diplomatic headquarters on December 17, 2023 to apply for asylum, when the Prosecutor’s Office was preparing to prosecute him for alleged embezzlement (embezzlement of public funds) in the reconstruction works after the devastating earthquake of 2016.
The Government of Mexico granted asylum to Glas in the midst of a crisis with Ecuador, whose president, Daniel Noboa, had expelled ambassador Raquel Serur after the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, related in statements the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio with Noboa’s electoral triumph.
After his capture, Glas was imprisoned in La Roca, the maximum security prison in Ecuador that is part of the Guayaquil penitentiary complex, a set of five prisons that since June 1 has suspended the food service by the supplier company.
The new sentence issued this Friday ordered the National Service of Comprehensive Care to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the state penitentiary agency, to guarantee and teate the rights of Glas, “especially the right to life, health and integrity, in consideration of the current prison context.”
Glas, who also has German citizenship, was one of the strong men of the Correa Government (2007-2017), and between 2013 and 2017 he held the position of vice president, as well as during the first months of Lenín Moreno’s mandate (2017-2021), until investigations began against him.
“They never notified the composition of the court of appeal, they never made known. They didn’t even deign to mention who presented the amicus curiae,” lamented the former president.
Among the amicus curiae who had joined the appeal to provide arguments in favor of Glas’s petition were the Puebla Group, the Lawfare Observatory, the Argentine jurist Eugenio Zaffaroni and the former ambassador of Bolivia to the UN Sacha Llorenti.
“Everyone knows and has seen that it was done by pulverizing international law and Ecuadorian law. We will not stop denouncing this case until we reach his freedom,” Sacha Llorenti said on social network X this Friday.
Mexico and Ecuador have counterclaimed before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the events that occurred on April 5, with mutual accusations of having transgressed international conventions and standards.
International
Three U.S. Executions Set for Same Day as Trump Pushes to Expand Death Penalty
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 U.S. states, while three others —California, Oregon and Pennsylvania— currently have moratoriums in place.
The United States is set to carry out three executions on the same day, a rare occurrence that has not happened since 2010, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
President Donald Trump has sought to expand the use of capital punishment for what he describes as “the most heinous crimes.” In April, the Department of Justice proposed expanding execution methods to include firing squads, lethal gas and electrocution.
Tennessee is scheduled to execute Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines, 66, on Thursday. He was sentenced to death for the 1985 murder of a woman, according to local media.
In Oklahoma, Carlos Cuesta-Rodríguez, 70, is scheduled to be executed for a 2003 murder.
Meanwhile, Alabama plans to execute Jeremy Williams, 42, who was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl.
The United States carried out 47 executions in 2025, the highest number since 2009, when 52 executions were recorded.
Florida conducted the largest number of executions last year, with 19, followed by Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, with five each.
Of the executions carried out in 2025, 39 were conducted by lethal injection. Three were carried out by firing squad and five through nitrogen hypoxia, a method that involves forcing nitrogen gas into a face mask, depriving the prisoner of oxygen.
The United Nations has condemned nitrogen gas as a cruel and inhumane method of capital punishment.
International
Colombia Earthquake Death Toll Reaches 265 as Rescue Teams Race Against Time
The 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Colombia on Monday, the strongest to hit the country this century, has so far left 265 people dead and around 3,500 injured.
In Cali, Pereira and other cities in western Colombia, rescue teams are working around the clock as they search for survivors. The first 72 hours following the earthquake will be reached at 7:34 a.m. local time (12:34 GMT), a critical window for rescue efforts as the chances of finding survivors generally decline significantly after that point.
Among those anxiously awaiting news is Valeria Cardona, a 26-year-old student searching for two of her cousins in Cali.
“We have some suspicions about their location, but there are no signs of life,” she said. “Hope is the last thing you lose, but we are anxious about receiving news we don’t want to hear.”
A team of members from the Topos Aztecas, the renowned Mexican volunteer rescue group, has also arrived in Cali to join the search. The rescuers had been working in neighboring Venezuela, where a double earthquake on June 24 left more than 6,000 people dead.
“We all came from Venezuela, from La Guaira. The 41 days we spent working there made us stronger because we overcame hunger, pain and sleepless nights,” said Héctor Méndez, 80, president of Topos Aztecas.
Méndez encouraged those affected by the disaster not to lose hope and emphasized the commitment required from rescue teams during an emergency.
“Do not feel like victims. This is not an office or workshop schedule. This is real life, where the best part of the human spirit emerges. These are things of nature that happen,” he said.
International
German Authorities Investigate More Than 100 New Cases Against Convicted Nurse
German authorities announced Monday that they are investigating more than 100 additional cases involving a nurse who was sentenced to life in prison in November for the murder of 10 patients.
The man, who was 44 at the time of his conviction, worked in palliative care at a hospital in Würselen, near Aachen. He was also found guilty of 27 attempted murders.
Aachen prosecutors are now examining 121 new cases, a spokesperson for the office said.
Prosecutors leading the investigation are preparing a new indictment that could be filed next year. Nearly 40 bodies have so far been exhumed as part of the investigation, which covers alleged incidents dating back to September 2022.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in the city of Cologne are investigating 18 additional cases. According to a spokesperson, the oldest case dates back to 2010.
Before working at the Würselen hospital, the nurse is believed to have worked at a clinic in eastern Cologne, according to local media reports.
At the time of his November conviction, the court ruled that the severity of his crimes was particularly serious, a finding that would make it difficult for him to obtain early release after 15 years in prison.
Between December 2023 and May 2024, the nurse administered overdoses of sedatives or painkillers to terminally ill patients, most of them elderly, according to the indictment in the original case.
His alleged motive was to sedate patients who required care so that he could minimize his workload during night shifts, prosecutors said.
According to the indictment, the nurse worked «without enthusiasm» and «without motivation». When faced with patients requiring extensive care, he allegedly became «irritated» and showed a lack of empathy.
The case has revived painful memories in Germany of Niels Högel, a former nurse and serial killer who was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2019 for the murders of at least 85 patients.
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