Following the arrest in Mexico of Walter Hipólito Solís, former Minister of Transport and Public Works of Ecuador during the administration of Rafael Correa, Claudia Sheinbaum reported that he has refugee status and there was no extradition. Interpol arrested him for investigation of the embezzlement of 367 million dollars.
The president of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum said that this former Ecuadorian official will not be extradited, even though he is on Interpol’s record.
Following his arrest last Thursday, November 21, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico reported that Walter Solís maintains refugee status in Mexico, so he will not be extradited.
Claudia Sheinbaum explained on Friday the reason why Walter Hipólito Solís, former Minister of Transport and Public Works of Ecuador, who has a red arrest record from Interpol, was not extradited, despite his arrest.
Following his arrest on Thursday by agents attached to the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) in Mexico, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that Walter Solís regained his freedom and maintains refugee status under the Law on Refugees, Complementary Protection and Political Asylum, a fact confirmed by the president. For the above, she denied that he would be extradited to Ecuador.
The Mexican president said that as far as she knows, there is no basis to indicate that the Ecuadorian government coordinated with “corrupt offices” of the Attorney General’s Office to try to return him to Ecuador, thus violating legal processes and his status as a political refugee.
The former official who has been a refugee in Mexico since 2021 is being prosecuted for the Manabí Reconstruction case, along with the former vice president of Ecuador, Jorge Glas, who had sought asylum in Mexico at the Mexican embassy in Quito, until it was assaulted by orders of the Ecuadorian president.
Both are being investigated in the South American country for the alleged embezzlement of public funds, amounting to 367 million dollars, which were to be used for the rehabilitation of Manabí after the 2016 earthquake.
Source: Aristegui Noticias
