Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry has branded as unlawful the asylum granted by Argentina to María de los Ángeles Duarte, minister of several portfolios during the presidency of Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and convicted of corruption.
«It is not lawful to grant asylum to a person convicted of corruption,» said the Ecuadorian diplomatic portfolio in a statement in which it refers to the Caracas Convention, signed in 1954 and which deals with diplomatic asylum.
Quito recalled that Duarte was once sentenced to eight years in prison for the crime of bribery in the framework of the ‘Bribes 2012-2016’ case, and that during the process «she had all the legal guarantees for her defense».
For these reasons, the Government of Ecuador has refused to grant safe conduct to former minister Duarte to leave the country to seek asylum in Argentina, as reported by the local newspaper ‘El Comercio’.
Already on Tuesday, the Ecuadorian diplomatic portfolio informed that it had summoned the Argentine ambassador in Quito, Gabriel Fucks, in search of explanations about an alleged «ultimatum» from Buenos Aires for Duarte’s asylum.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry rejected «any attempt to set deadlines or conditions to an issue that requires a meticulous legal analysis», and defended that the Executive was studying the case from the first moment.
According to Argentine publications in the last days, Fucks would have requested a meeting of technical and legal experts together with officials from both countries to speed up the safe-conduct for the former minister and thus be able to travel to Argentina.
Duarte served as minister of Economic and Social Inclusion (2009-2010), Transport and Public Works (2010-2013) and Urban Development and Housing (2015-2017), always under the mandate of President Correa.
