QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — The Mexican government ended diplomatic relations with Ecuador after police broke into the Mexican embassy Friday night to arrest a former Ecuadorian vice president, an extraordinary use of a force that shocked and mystified regional leaders and diplomats.
Ecuadorian police forced the exterior doors of the embassy in the capital, Quito, to arrest Jorge Glas, who had resided there since December. Glas requested political asylum at the embassy after being charged with corruption.
The raid prompted Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to announce Friday evening the severance of diplomatic relations with Ecuador, while his government’s foreign secretary said the move would be challenged at the World Court in The Hague.
“It’s not possible. It can’t be. It’s crazy,” Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican consular section in Quito, told local press as he stood in front of the embassy immediately after the raid. “I am very worried because they could kill him. There is no basis for this. This is totally out of the ordinary.
On Saturday, Glas was taken in an armored vehicle from the attorney general’s office to an airport, where he boarded a plane for a flight to the port city of Guayaquil, 425 kilometers south of Quito. People who had gathered in front of the prosecutor’s office shouted “force” as the convoy of police and military vehicles drove away.
Ecuador’s prison agency said Glas would remain in custody at a maximum security facility in Guayaquil.
Authorities are investigating Glas for alleged irregularities in his handling of reconstruction efforts following the powerful 2016 earthquake that killed hundreds of people. He was convicted of bribery and corruption in other cases.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s office defended the raid in a statement, saying “Ecuador is a sovereign nation” that will “not allow any criminal to remain at large.” López Obrador hit back, calling Glas’ detention an “authoritarian act” and a “flagrant violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty.”
Alicia Bárcena, Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Relations, posted on the social platform X that a number of diplomats were injured in the break-in, adding that it violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Diplomatic premises are considered “inviolable” under the Vienna Treaties and local law enforcement is not allowed to enter without permission from the ambassador. Asylum seekers have lived from a few days to several years in embassies around the world, including Ecuador’s in London, which housed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for seven years because British police could not not go in to stop him.
The decision of the Ecuadorian authorities was condemned on Saturday by presidents, diplomats and a regional body.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro, writing on to the asylum.”
The Organization of American States reminded its members, including Ecuador and Mexico, in a statement of their “obligation” not to “invoke the norms of national law to justify non-compliance with their international obligations”.
“In this context, the OAS expresses its solidarity with those who were victims of the inappropriate actions that affected the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador,” according to the statement released on Saturday. The organization added that it considered a meeting of its permanent council “necessary to address the issue,” but did not set a date.
Bárcena said Friday that Mexico would take the case to the International Court of Justice “to denounce Ecuador’s responsibility for violations of international law.” She also said that Mexican diplomats were only waiting for the Ecuadorian government to provide the necessary guarantees for their return to their country.
Noboa became president of Ecuador last year as the country struggled with unprecedented crime linked to drug trafficking. After a group of armed individuals attacked a television station during a live broadcast in January, he declared the country in an “internal armed conflict” and designated 20 drug trafficking gangs as terrorist groups. the army had the authorization to “neutralize” on the territory. of international humanitarian law.
Will Freeman, a fellow in Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the decision to send police to the Mexican embassy raises concerns about the steps Noboa is willing to take to seek re-election. His term ends in 2025 since he was only elected to complete the term of former President Guillermo Lasso.
“I really hope Noboa doesn’t turn more toward Bukele,” Freeman said, referring to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, whose tough-on-crime policies have been heavily criticized by human rights organizations. “That is to say less respectful of the rule of law in order to strengthen its popularity before the elections.”
Freeman added that whether Glas abused diplomatic protection is a “separate question” from the decision to send police to the embassy.
“We see a similar trend in Latin America, where politicians are abusing foreign embassies and jurisdictions, not to escape prosecution but to escape accountability,” he said.
Ecuador’s foreign and interior ministries did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Former Ecuadorian Ambassador Jorge Icaza told the AP that the raid was illegal, but he added that it is also illegal to protect “a criminal who has been punished by Ecuadorian justice in two important cases, which is also negative from the point of view of international standards. »
The Mexican embassy in Quito remained under heavy police surveillance after the raid – a flash point in recent tensions between Mexico and Ecuador.
Tensions escalated on Thursday after López Obrador made statements that Ecuador considered “very unfortunate” regarding last year’s elections. In response, the Ecuadorian government declared the Mexican ambassador persona non grata.
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Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Gonzalo Solano in Quito and Megan Janetsky in Mexico City contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
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