QUITO, ECUADOR (AP) – Mexico cuts diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police invade the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest the former Ecuadorian vice president, who has been charged with corruption and was seeking political asylum in the country. are doing.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Ecuadorian police forced their way into the Mexican embassy to arrest Jorge Glas, who has been living in the country since December, as diplomatic rifts between the two countries deepen. The announcement was made on Friday night.
Glass, perhaps the most wanted man in the country, was convicted of bribery and corruption. Ecuadorian authorities continue to investigate further charges against him.
On Friday, April 5, 2024, police attempted to break into the Mexican Embassy in Quito, Ecuador after the Mexican government granted asylum to former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who had taken refuge there. Ta. Police then forcibly entered the embassy through a different entrance. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Police broke into the outside door of Mexico's diplomatic headquarters in Ecuador's capital and entered the main patio to arrest Glass.
“It's impossible, it's impossible, it's crazy,” Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican consulate in Quito, told local reporters outside the embassy. “I'm very worried because they might kill him. There's no basis for doing something like this and this is completely outside the norm.”
Ecuador's president defended the decision, saying in a statement: “Ecuador is a sovereign country and we will not leave any criminals free.”
President López Obrador called Gras's detention an “authoritarian act” and a “grave violation of international law and Mexico's sovereignty.”
Mexican Consulate General Roberto Canseco stands at the entrance to the Mexican Embassy in Quito, Ecuador, after Ecuadorian police forced entry into the premises on Friday, April 5, 2024. The attack took place hours after the Mexican government granted permission to the former Ecuadorian deputy. Political asylum of President Jorge Glass. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Mexican Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena posted on X (formerly Twitter) that a number of diplomats were injured in the incursion, adding that it was a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Bárcena said Mexico would take the case to the International Court of Justice to “condemn Ecuador's responsibility for violations of international law.” He also said Mexican diplomats were just waiting for the Ecuadorian government to provide the guarantees they needed to return home.
Ecuador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Interior did not respond to requests for comment.
The Mexican embassy in Quito remained under heavy police security until late Friday.
Tensions between the two countries escalated a day earlier after Mexico's president said that Ecuador considered the last election won by Ecuador's President Daniel Novoa “very disappointing.”
In response, the Ecuadorian government Mexican ambassador declares persona non grata.
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