Mexico Suspends Relations with Ecuador After Embassy Raid

Mexico has suspended diplomatic relations with the Government of Ecuador, as ordered by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The decision came after police officers stormed the Mexican Embassy in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, whom the Mexican government had granted asylum to after his entry last December.

“Alicia Barcena, our Secretary of Foreign Affairs, has just informed me that Ecuadorian police forcefully entered our embassy and detained the former vice president of that country, who was seeking refuge and asylum due to the persecution and harassment he faces,” reported Lopez Obrador through his X account.

The President of Mexico stated that this act was a flagrant violation of international law and Mexico’s sovereignty.

“It is a flagrant violation of international law and Mexico’s sovereignty, for which I have instructed our foreign minister to issue a statement on this authoritarian act, to proceed legally, and to immediately declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with the government of Ecuador,” he added.

Violation by Ecuador denounced

Meanwhile, Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena confirmed the immediate breaking of diplomatic relations with Ecuador, stating that the entry of Ecuadorian police represents a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

“In consultation with President Lopez Obrador, in the face of the flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the injuries suffered by Mexican diplomatic personnel in Ecuador, Mexico announces the immediate breaking of diplomatic relations with Ecuador,” she said on X.

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

However, on the night of Friday, April 5, Ecuadorian police entered the consular premises to apprehend Glas. Cameras showed that police officers climbed walls and fences of the diplomatic headquarters and then left that residence, which had been heavily guarded by the military since early hours, in a moment of tension between the two governments.

The head of the Foreign Ministry and Political Affairs of the Embassy, Roberto Canseco, told reporters statements that the Ecuadorian agents stormed and assaulted the guard personnel of the diplomatic headquarters.

“This is totally unacceptable, this cannot be, it is 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 events assured EFE that Glas was detained in the diplomatic dependency and was transferred to a Prosecutor’s unit in Quito, although Ecuadorian authorities have not yet commented on this case.

This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.