Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ordered Saturday April 6 the “suspension” diplomatic relations with Ecuador after police officers from that country invaded the Mexican embassy in Quito during the evening of Friday, to arrest former Ecuadorian vice-president Jorge Glas, who had taken refuge there a few months earlier .
It’s about a “flagrant violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty”wrote the Mexican president on the social networkadding: “I have instructed our Minister of Foreign Affairs (…) to immediately declare 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 Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena, still on.
“It’s not possible, it’s madness”, Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican consular section in Quito, told the American agency Associated Press, from outside the embassy. He also assured the Ecuadorian press having been beaten by the police.
A “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 the police, Mr. Canseco declared: “I am very worried, because they could kill him; there is no basis [juridique] to intervene in this way 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 Ecuadorian justice, was arrested (…) and placed under the orders of the competent authorities”.
“Each embassy has a unique objective: to serve as a diplomatic space to strengthen relations between countries”continues the press release, 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 around 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 Reutersand took refuge in the embassy.
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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 free”, justified the Ecuadorian presidency in a statement on Friday evening. Earlier the same day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had confirmed in a communicated that Ecuador “ would not grant safe conduct” to Mr Glas and had stressed that “the granting of diplomatic asylum” by Mexico “was not legal”.