Mexico Ends Diplomatic Relations with Ecuador following Attack on Embassy

Ecuadorean authorities detained former Vice President Jorge Glas on Friday night after seizing him from the Mexican embassy, causing Mexico to suspend bilateral relations.

Glas, aged 54, who had been convicted of corruption twice, had been staying in the embassy in Quito since requesting political asylum in December, a request that Mexico had granted earlier on Friday.

According to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s post on X, police forcefully entered Mexico’s embassy in Quito before making the arrest.

The Ecuadorean president’s office confirmed in a statement that Glas, who served as vice president under Rafael Correa’s leftist government between 2013 and 2017, had been arrested.

International lawyer Sonia Vera, representing Glas, stated over the phone that their team was seeking assistance at an inter-American level from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, as well as the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly.

There was a significant military presence at the magistrates court in Quito, where the former vice president was taken.

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The arrest marked the culmination of a week of rising tensions between Mexico and Ecuador, with Ecuador declaring Mexico’s ambassador in Quito persona non grata on Thursday due to “unfortunate” remarks from President Lopez Obrador.

Ecuador argued that Mexico’s offer of asylum was unlawful.

In a statement, Ecuador’s presidency accused Mexico of misusing the diplomatic privileges of the mission that housed the former vice president and granting asylum in violation of legal conventions.

Lopez Obrador stated that he had directed Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena to halt diplomatic relations with Ecuador, condemning the arrest as an “authoritarian” act and a breach of international law and Mexican sovereignty.

Barcena announced the immediate suspension of diplomatic ties with Ecuador shortly after on X and later confirmed that embassy staff would be returning to Mexico.

Ecuadorean authorities had requested Mexico’s permission to enter the embassy and arrest Glas, who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2017 for accepting bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for government contracts.

Glas, who also faced a preventive arrest warrant in another corruption case, maintained that he was being unfairly targeted due to his political affiliation, a claim that Ecuador’s government refuted.

This week, Ecuadorean officials were incensed by Lopez Obrador’s comments on the violent elections in the country last year, where a presidential candidate was assassinated.

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa assumed office late last year and quickly found himself in a conflict with drug cartels, prompting him to declare a nationwide state of emergency earlier this year, which he extended last month.