Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ordered on Saturday April 6 the “suspension” of diplomatic relations with Ecuador after police officers from that country invaded the Mexican embassy in Quito during the evening of Friday, to arrest the Former Ecuadorian vice-president Jorge Glas, who had taken refuge there a few months earlier.
This is a “flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico,” the Mexican president wrote on the social network the suspension of diplomatic relations with the Ecuadorian government.”
“Given the flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the injuries suffered by Mexican diplomatic personnel in Ecuador, Mexico announces the immediate severance of diplomatic relations with Ecuador,” confirmed the Minister of Foreign Affairs Alicia Barcena, still on X.
“It’s not possible, it’s madness,” Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican consular section in Quito, told the Associated Press from outside the embassy. He also assured the Ecuadorian press that he had been beaten by the police.
“Diplomatic asylum” by Mexico “illegal”, according to Ecuador
Asked about the situation of former Vice President Glas and the fact that he was apprehended by law enforcement, Mr. Canseco said: “I am very worried, because they could kill him ; there is no [legal] basis for intervening in this way, it is outside of any norm. »
The Ecuadorian government announced for its part, Friday in a press release from the Ministry of Communication, that “Jorge Glas Espinel, sentenced to a prison term by the Ecuadorian justice system, was arrested (…) and placed under the orders of the authorities competent”.
“Each embassy has a unique purpose: to serve as a diplomatic space to strengthen relations between countries,” the statement continued, adding that “no criminal can be considered a politically persecuted person.” Former vice-president “Jorge Glas was the subject of an enforceable conviction and an arrest warrant issued by the competent authorities,” it is specified.
Jorge Glas, who was vice-president in Ecuador from 2013 to 2018, was sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption by his country's justice system in April 2020, before a legal battle began over the application of his conviction, according to the Ecuadorian press. In December 2023, Mr. Glas had already requested asylum from the Mexican authorities, according to the British agency Reuters, and took refuge in the embassy.
On Friday April 5, Mexican authorities officially granted asylum to Mr. Glas, the day after Ecuador's decision to expel the Mexican ambassador to Quito, Raquel Serur. The latter was declared persona non grata following remarks by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador regarding political violence in Ecuador.
“Ecuador is a sovereign nation, and we will not allow a criminal to remain at large,” justified the Ecuadorian presidency in a statement Friday evening. Earlier the same day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed in a statement that Ecuador "would not grant safe conduct" to Mr. Glas and stressed that the "granting of diplomatic asylum" by the Mexico “wasn’t legal.”
