María de los Ángeles Duarte, former Minister of Transportation of Ecuador from 2010-2014, pictured on April 6, 2010.Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (Creative Commons)
The former Minister of Transportation of Ecuador, María de los Ángeles Duarte, convicted of corruption, escaped from the Argentine Embassy in Quito, where she had been in asylum since August 2020 after an arrest warrant was issued against her.
The news came out on Monday night through a statement from the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry indicating that the Argentine Foreign Minister, Santiago Cafiero, informed his Ecuadorian counterpart on Monday afternoon of Duarte's escape "without the knowledge of the personnel of the Embassy".
In the same statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that it has summoned the Argentine ambassador, Gabriel Fuks, to find out more details about the situation and that the Police have activated the search and capture protocols for the official, who remains a fugitive from the justice for a sentence of eight years in prison for the crime of bribery in the so-called
Bribes 2012-2016 case.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, the former Minister of Transportation and, previously, of Public Works was part of the structure that collected private money, including bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for state contracts during the Government of Rafael Correa.
In the same case, other ministers were sentenced, former vice president Jorge Glas and former president Rafael Correa himself, all of whom declared themselves victims of political persecution.
"Ecuador has presented an emphatic claim to Argentina and has demanded the delivery of information," adds the message from the Foreign Ministry upon learning of the leak and that it will take the most appropriate measures in the event of this incident.
The entry of María de los Ángeles Duarte to the residence of the Embassy of Argentina, in Quito, occurred on August 12, 2020 to avoid complying with the sentence imposed and the Argentine diplomatic delegation received her as a guest, for humanitarian reasons.
In December 2022, Argentina granted Duarte diplomatic asylum with which it hoped to obtain a safe-conduct so that the official convicted of corruption could leave the country.
But, the Government of Guillermo Lasso responded that "a person sentenced for corruption has to pay his sentence," according to what Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín said at the time.
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