SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The Biden administration imposed visa bans on the former Ecuadorian president this Wednesday, October 9 Rafael Correahis former vice president and his immediate family members, for corruption.
The State Department announced in a release official that Correa and his former vice president Jorge Glas will no longer be able to enter the United States.
“Correa and Glas abused their positions as former president and former vice president of Ecuador, respectively, by accepting bribes, including through political contributions, in exchange for the granting of favorable government contracts,” the statement states.
The prohibition also applies to their spouses and children: “Correa’s spouse, Anne Malherbe Gosselin, is designated; to his adult daughters, Sofía Correa and Anne Dominique Correa; and his adult son, Rafael Miguel Correa, as generally unfit to enter the United States. He has also declared Glas’ wife, Cinthia Díaz Aveiga, and his adult son, Jorge Glas Díaz, generally unfit to enter the United States,” the notice cites.
Correa was president of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017, a period in which he opened the Ecuadorian embassy in London to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, when he was wanted by the United States.
He was convicted in absentia on corruption charges in Ecuador in 2020 and sentenced to eight years in prison and has lived in exile in Belgium since 2017.
“The United States stands with Ecuadorians, including members of civil society, law enforcement, and investigative journalists, committed to increasing government transparency and holding corrupt public officials accountable,” the text states.
In August 2019, the Attorney General of Ecuador, Diana Salazar, announced that there was evidence that Correa “had, approved, authorized the receipt and distribution of money collected from this well-structured criminal gang,” referring to his Alianza party. Country.
Correa was accused along with 20 other people, including former vice president Jorge Glas, the legal secretary of the presidency Alexis Mera and the former Minister of Transportation and Public Works María de los Ángeles Duarte.
The accusation against Rafael Correa was filed by the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office, accusing the former president “of running his political party, Alianza PAÍS, as a criminal organization, because he allegedly channeled millions in payments from private companies to illegally fill his campaign coffers. ”.
In this regard, Correa’s vice president, Jorge Glas, served a sentence accused of organizing a scheme to receive bribes from the Brazilian Odebrecht SA.
