2024: Mexico Is Breaking Diplomatic Ties With Ecuador After Police Stormed The Embassy In Quito

QUITO, Ecuador — The Mexican president has promptly cut diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police raided the Mexican Embassy to arrest a former vice president who had sought political refuge there after being charged on corruption charges.

Ecuadorian police forced their way inside the embassy in Quito, the country’s capital, to arrest Jorge Glas, who had been there since December. Police broke through the external doors of the Mexican diplomatic headquarters in the Ecuadorian capital and entered the main patio to apprehend Glas.

On Saturday, he was driven from the attorney general’s office to a detention facility in an armored vehicle, trailed by a convoy of military and police cars. People outside the prosecutor’s office screamed “strength” as the vans moved.

Mexico Is Breaking Diplomatic Ties With Ecuador After Police Stormed The Embassy In Quito

The incident caused Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to proclaim the termination of diplomatic relations with the country on Friday evening.

Glas has been convicted of bribery and corruption charges. Ecuadorian authorities are still examining more charges against him.

“This is impossible. It can’t be. “This is insane,” Roberto Canseco, chief of the Mexican consulate division in Quito, told local reporters while standing outside the embassy. “I am quite concerned because they may kill him. There is no reason to do this. This is really out of the norm.”

The presidency defended its decision by saying: “the country is a sovereign nation, and we will not allow any criminal to remain free.”

López Obrador struck back, calling Glas’ imprisonment an “authoritarian act” and a “flagrant violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty.”

Alicia Bárcena, Mexico’s secretary of international relations, stated on the social media site X that several diplomats were injured during the break-in, which violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Mexico Is Breaking Diplomatic Ties With Ecuador After Police Stormed The Embassy In Quito

The Vienna treaties define diplomatic premises as “inviolable,” local law enforcement officials are not permitted to enter without the ambassador’s permission. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, spent seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London because British police were unable to arrest him.

Bárcena stated that Mexico would take the matter to the International Court of Justice “to denounce Ecuador’s responsibility for violations of international law.” She also stated that Mexican ambassadors were waiting for the Ecuadorian administration to provide the required guarantees for their return home.

The countries Foreign Ministry and Ministry of the Interior did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mexico Is Breaking Diplomatic Ties With Ecuador After Police Stormed The Embassy In Quito

The Mexican Embassy in Quito was heavily guarded late Friday.

Tensions between the two countries had risen the day before when Mexico’s president made remarks regarding last year’s election, which Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa won.

In response, the Ecuadorian government labeled the Mexican ambassador persona non grata.

SOURCE – (AP)