The text, titled “For the freedom of Jorge Glas and for respect for International Law,” was signed by former presidents Alberto Fernández (Argentina), Ernesto Samper (Colombia), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Rafael Correa (Ecuador) and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (Spain).
It was also signed by the executive secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples’ Trade Treaty, Jorge Arreaza, and the Nobel Peace Prize winner of Argentina Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.
The note recounted the events that occurred on April 5 at the Mexican embassy in Quito, Ecuador, when President Daniel Noboa ordered “the violent incursion of military police forces” and asserted that the objective of this invasion was the kidnapping of Glas.
He recalled that the former vice president was in that diplomatic headquarters as a political exiled, after being judicially and politically persecuted for seven years.
The signatories acknowledged that “there is no precedent in our region of an attack of this nature on an embassy to kidnap an asylum seeker” and expressed that not even the military dictatorships dared to perpetrate an aggression of this type, which was instructed from the highest authority of the State.
They reported that Jorge Glas was violently kidnapped and was a victim of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
At this time, they stated, “he suffers constant death threats and his family members, lawyers and colleagues are permanently harassed and intimidated”, a situation that, they expressed, “forced him to carry out the extreme measure of the hunger strike.” .
One month after the kidnapping of the former Ecuadorian vice president and given the seriousness of “this terrible situation that threatens regional stability,” the signatories expressed the greatest concern for the health and physical integrity of Glas and that of those close to him.
Likewise, they stressed that “his safety is the entire responsibility of the government of Daniel Noboa, the author of his kidnapping.”
They regretted that the Inter-American System, despite the seriousness of these events, remains silent and does not demand respect for the sacred right to asylum; and demanded the immediate return to the situation prior to the assault against the Mexican embassy.
The former presidents, politicians, academics, social activists and artists also demanded that the protection that corresponds, within the framework of International Law prevail, and that Glas be granted the corresponding safe conduct so that he can move safely to Mexican territory.
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