Ecuador's former vice president taken to hospital after arrest

QUITO, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's former Vice President Jorge Glas was rushed to the hospital Monday with drug poisoning three days after he was arrested at the Mexican Embassy in Quito, according to local media.

Glas, who was convicted of corruption and had sought refuge at the embassy, was taken from a maximum security prison in the southwest city of Guayaquil to a hospital after taking medication that caused poisoning, online news site Primicias said.

Citing a police report, the site said he was in a self-induced deep coma presumably caused by the ingestion of anxiolytic, antidepressant and sedative medications.

The report said an initial medical evaluation was carried out on Glas, who did not respond to the treatment, so he was taken to a military hospital for an evaluation with specialists in neurology, internal medicine and cardiac medicine.

Former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) confirmed the news on social media and lamented the medical condition of the 54-year-old Glas, who was his vice president.

Glas was arrested late Friday during a raid by Ecuadorian police at the Mexican Embassy in Quito, where he had taken refuge.

The raid came just hours after Mexico granted him political asylum on the belief he was being politically "persecuted," a decision Ecuador rejected and described as an "illicit act."

After the assault on the Mexican embassy, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced the suspension of diplomatic ties with Ecuador and ordered an indefinite closure of the diplomatic outpost in the Andean country. ■