International
Former Ecuadorian vice-president awaits response to asylum request in Mexico

December 27 |
The former vice president of Ecuador, Jorge Glas, who on Wednesday will have his pre-release hearing, is awaiting a response from the Government of Mexico to his request for diplomatic asylum, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Glas, alleging that he felt his safety was at risk, entered the Mexican embassy in Quito on December 17, as a guest, and three days later formally requested diplomatic asylum.
The former Ecuadorian vice-president (2013-2018), who was already imprisoned for five years and four months for corruption cases, made the decision to take refuge in the diplomatic mission after the Prosecutor’s Office requested him for proceedings in the investigation of a case called “Reconstruction”.
Sonia Vera, lawyer of the former vice-president, denounced that her client suffers from “a bloody legal and political persecution” by the prosecutor Diana Salazar, of whom the correísmo has requested an impeachment for alleged “breach of duties”.
The lawyer pointed out that there is no deadline for Mexico to issue a response to the asylum request, but indicated that in similar cases the process took about a month.
Vera, on the other hand, confirmed that this Wednesday at 15:00 local time (20:00 GMT) the pre-release hearing for her client will be held.
After being five years and four months in jail, Glas is in a regime of semi-liberty.
The lawyer mentioned that the former vice president, sentenced to eight years for bribery and six for illicit association linked to the Odebrecht bribery scandal, has served 60 percent of his sentence.
International
Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.
“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.
“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.
Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
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