Ortega Breaks Diplomatic Relations With Ecuador in Support of Mexico

Daniel Ortega's regime announced that it is also breaking diplomatic relations with Ecuador following the police raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito, where Ecuadorian police officers forced their way into the Embassy on Friday night to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been granted political asylum by the Mexican government.

"We emphatically and irrevocably condemn the unprecedented and reprehensible action carried out early this morning in Quito by [government] forces that should be protecting the order, security and lives of Ecuadorian citizens, leading us to our sovereign decision to break all diplomatic relations with the Ecuadorian government," the Nicaragua regime said in a statement.

Nicaragua had previously withdrawn its Embassy from Quito on September 1, 2020. With this pronouncement the regime formalized "the rupture of all diplomatic relations," according to the statement. 

The regime also expressed its solidarity and support "to the President and Government of Mexico, Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador" in any legal action that may arise from this situation.

The statement from Managua also declared that the Nicaraguan regime "absolutely rejects and condemns the neo-fascist political barbarism of the Government of Ecuador, whose admirable people deserve, as always, all our affection, support and solidarity."

"We condemn and reject this flagrant violation of international law that we see repeated by corrupt and servile rulers of empires, who unfortunately occupy institutional positions in that sister country," said the Nicaraguan regime’s statement.

Ecuador violated Mexico's sovereignty

On Friday night, April 5, the same day Mexico granted Glas political asylum, Ecuadorian police broke into the headquarters of the Mexican Embassy in Quito and arrested Jorge Glas, vice president of Ecuador between 2013 and 2017 under Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and then under Lenín Moreno (2017-2021) until Moreno suspended him In August 2017. 

Glas, 54, was considered Correa's right-hand man. He entered the Mexican Embassy in December 2023 and shortly thereafter requested asylum.

Glas is being prosecuted for alleged embezzlement in the so-called “Reconstruction Case” in Manabí, the province most affected by the major earthquake of 2016. A judge had ordered his arrest and that he be remanded to Ecuadorian custody after he sought refuge in the Mexican Embassy.

The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced the formal severance of diplomatic relations with Ecuador, saying that the raid on the embassy in Quito was a violation of Mexico’s national sovereignty and of international law.

"This is a flagrant violation of international law and of Mexico's sovereignty, for which I have instructed our foreign minister to issue a statement about this authoritarian act and to legally proceed to immediately declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with the Government of Ecuador," López Obrador posted on his X account.

Ortega stormed the OAS embassy in 2022

Daniel Ortega's pronouncement against what happened in Ecuador comes two years after his own regime stormed and confiscated the embassy of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Managua, when Nicaragua was still a member state of the regional organization.

In a statement regarding the attack on the Mexican embassy in Ecuador, the OAS General Secretariat recalled that they suffered a "similar attack" in Managua, perpetrated by Daniel Ortega’s regime.

"The OAS was also recently the victim of a similar attack in Managua and ambiguities are not admissible either in that case or in this one [the break-in at the Mexican embassy in Ecuador], but rather [we must act in] the fullest coherence with international law," said the organization.

The Ortega regime confiscated the building where the OAS headquarters operated in Managua, despite the building being a private property that only leased one floor to the headquarters of the regional organization. The regime then transferred the property to the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua) and installed an educational “Center for Sovereignty” named after Ortega’s former Sandinista Foreign Minister Father Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann. 

Initially, the Nicaraguan regime had announced that it would turn the building where the OAS had its offices into what it was calling the "Museum of Infamy". 

Nicaraguan regime also granted asylum to fugitives from justice

On February 7 of this year, the Ortega dictatorship granted asylum to Ricardo Martinelli, the former president of Panama (2009-2014) who was running again for president. Martinelli had been convicted of money laundering and sentenced to more than ten years in prison and fined more than $19 million, the first sentence of its kind in the democratic history of the Central American country.

Ortega has also provided asylum in Nicaraguan territory to two former presidents of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes (2009-2014) and Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014-2019), both fugitives from justice in their country for acts of corruption.

Former Nicaraguan ambassador to the OAS, Arturo McFields, criticized the governments of Mexico and Nicaragua for abusing diplomatic asylum “indiscriminately”  and called for a discussion on the use of diplomatic headquarters.

"Mexico and the Nicaraguan dictatorship have abused diplomatic asylum indiscriminately. Their actions to protect criminals and delinquents force a necessary debate regarding the Vienna Convention and the improper use of diplomatic headquarters," McFields stated on his X account.

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