MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who is suspected of taking bribes from the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, has been arrested at his residence in Guayaquil and transferred to the nation's capital Quito by plane, local media reported.
On Monday, an Ecuadorean court issued an arrest warrant for Glas at the behest of the Prosecutor General's Office.
Minutes before the arrest, Glas posted a video on his Twitter account to announce that he did not consider himself guilty and that he was ready for a dialogue with the authorities.
In early August, Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno issued an order suspending Glas from his duties.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, there is much evidence of his guilt, including a voice record of an official's conversation with an Odebrecht representative, during which they discussed the demands for bribes made by Glas.
The probe into Odebrecht has become one of the biggest corruption scandals in Latin America. The company is accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes to politicians to secure lucrative contracts.
