Brussels, February 24 (RHC)-- The former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, will return to his country at the end of the year to register his candidacy for vice president or as a member of the assembly, facing the 2021 presidential elections, Fausto Vase, his lawyer, told Reuters.

"We intend for his return to Ecuador; once he registers his candidacy, he would immediately be protected by electoral immunity (…) he will return this year, in November or December," Vase said.

In August, Correa declared that he intended to be a candidate for the vice presidency of his country or to occupy a seat in the National Assembly.  According to Ecuador's Constitution from 2008, Rafael Correa could aspire to any candidacy other than the Presidency, as long as a court of law does not sentence him.

Correa has said he is not interested in power, but instead in preventing the elites from controlling Ecuador for the next 30 years.  "We have to react and thus return the State to the people, to the citizens," he said at the time.

Ecuador's former president has indicated that the most important thing "is to fulfill the historical role of recovering the homeland," after asserting that the current Government has delayed the country at least 15 years.