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.
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.
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
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Ecuador prison riot leaves at least 43 dead
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