The former Ecuadorian minister who took refuge in the Argentine embassy in Quito escaped

Argentine Foreign Minister cafe santiagocommunicated to his Ecuadorian counterpart, Juan Carlos Holguin, that the former Minister of Transport and Public Works, a refugee at the Argentine diplomatic headquarters in Quito, escaped from the embassy on Monday afternoon. The information on the departure of Duarte, considered a fugitive from justice in Ecuador, was officially released by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the night of March 13.

Since August 13, 2020, María de los Ángeles Duarte has remained with her son in the Argentinian Embassy in Ecuador, in Quito. He was allowed to enter the diplomatic headquarters as a “guest for humanitarian reasons”. However, in December 2022, the government of Alberto Fernández granted diplomatic asylum to the former minister.

Ecuador presented acategorical complaint to Argentina and demanded the delivery of information“, Communicated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, the Argentine Ambassador, Gabriel Fuchswas summoned by the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, Louis Vayas, for more on Duarte’s escape. “The Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take the most appropriate measures in response to this incident,” the official statement read.

In January of this year, the Minister Juan Carlos Holguin, considered Duarte’s case closed. In an interview with GlobeLiveMediathe Minister of Foreign Affairs assured that Ecuador “has firmly communicated to Argentina that a safe-conduct will not be issued to a person convicted of corruption, based on our unrestricted adherence to international law and the conventions to which both countries are parties” and added that “in the case of relations with Argentina, we hope that these will not will not be affected beyond the diplomatic responses that both parties have given in connection with this matter.

María de los Ángeles Duarte was sentenced in 2020 to eight years in prison for corruption, a crime of corruption against the public administration. The Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs detailed, in December 2022, that “corruption or bribery is characterized in the United Nations and Inter-American Conventions against Corruption” and reminded the Argentine government that “the conventions that regulate diplomatic asylum exclude the possibility of granting asylum to persons convicted of common law offenses”.

Duarte was investigated, tried and convicted by the highest courts in the country before Guillermo Lasso assumed the presidency, in May 2021. As officially reported on this case, the resolution court “had all the procedural guarantees”.

News in development…

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