Mexico has severed diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest a former vice president of Ecuador who had sought political asylum there after being accused of corruption.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced this on Friday night after Ecuadorian police forcibly entered the Mexican embassy to arrest Jorge Glas, who has been residing there since December, while the diplomatic rift between the two countries deepened.
Glas, arguably the most wanted man in the country, has been convicted on charges of bribery and corruption. Ecuadorian authorities are still investigating additional allegations against him.
Police broke through the outer gates of the Mexican diplomatic headquarters in the Ecuadorian capital and entered the main terrace to arrest Glas.
“It’s not possible, it can’t be, it’s crazy,” said Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican consular department in the capital, Quito, to local media while standing outside the embassy.
“I am very concerned because they could kill him. There is no basis for doing this; it is completely outside the norms,” he said.
Defending its decision, the Ecuadorian Presidency stated in a press release:
“Ecuador is a sovereign country, and we will not allow any criminal to remain at large.”
Lopez Obrador countered by calling Glas’s detention “an authoritarian act” and “a flagrant violation of international law and Mexico’s sovereignty.”
Alicia Barcena, the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced on X, formerly Twitter, that a number of diplomats were injured during the break-in, adding that this violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
