Mexico severed relations with Ecuador after the raid on its embassy and the capture of former vice president Jorge Glas

Mexico This Friday, diplomatic relations with the government of Ecuadoras ordered Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The Mexican president made this decision later police raid on his country’s embassy in Quitoto arrest former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas, a few hours after the Aztec government granted him political asylum.

“Alicia Bárcena, our Secretary of Foreign Affairs, just informed me that the Ecuadorian police they entered by force to our embassy and they arrested the former vice president of that country who was a refugee and was requesting asylum due to the persecution and harassment he suffers,” López Obrador reported through his X account.

The president of Mexico declared that this act was concerning a flagrant violation to international law and the sovereignty of Mexico.

“I have instructed our chancellor to issue a statement regarding this authoritarian act, to proceed legally and to declare it immediately suspension of diplomatic relations with the government of Ecuador“He added.

For her part, the Mexican Foreign Minister, Alicia Bárcena, confirmed the resolution, maintaining that the entry of elements of the Ecuadorian police represents a violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.

“In consultations with President López Obrador, 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 severing of diplomatic relations with Ecuador,” he indicated in X.

According to the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the former Ecuadorian vice president has been in the Mexican embassy in Ecuador since December 17, 2023.

The police, who arrived in black vehicles, They broke the exterior doors of the Mexican diplomatic headquarters in the north of the Ecuadorian capital and entered the courtyards.

The head of the Farnesina and of the Embassy’s Political Affairs, Roberto Canseco, in statements to journalists, denounced that the Ecuadorian agents broke in and attacked the guard staff of the diplomatic headquarters.

“This is absolutely unacceptable, it cannot be, it’s barbaric“Canseco said and assured that the agents hit him when he confronted them to try to prevent them from violating the space of the Mexican Embassy in Quito.

A source close to the facts assured EFE this Glas was detained at the diplomatic facility and was transferred to a unit of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Quito, although the Ecuadorian authorities have not yet commented on this case.

Since 2017, Glas is serving two sentences, one for a corruption case and another related to the Odebrecht case. He was released at the end of November 2022. Furthermore, an investigation is open against him for irregularities in the reconstruction work of the 2016 earthquake during his administration. He had sought refuge in the Mexican embassy in Quito in December 2023.

Tense diplomatic relations between the two nations

Diplomatic relations between Ecuador and Mexico are at their lowest level in years due to the expulsion of the country’s ambassador in Quito after the Mexican president’s controversial statements on the recent Ecuadorian presidential election, analysts warned this Friday.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld said Mexican Ambassador Raquel Serur Smeke had 72 hours to leave the country and argued that the Mexican president’s statements “offend the Ecuadorian state, Ecuadorians.”

Andrés Manuel López Obrador argued on Wednesday that the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, a few days before the first round of elections in August 2023, influenced the outcome of the vote.

“There were elections in Ecuador; The candidate of the progressive forces was ahead by about 10 points” and “then, a candidate who speaks badly of the candidate who is in first place is assassinated and the candidate who was in first place falls and the candidate who was in second place rises”, – said the Mexican leader candidate.