Ecuadorian police assault the Mexican Embassy in Quito and capture former vice president Jorge Glas

Ecuador has strained its relationship with Mexico to the maximum. On Friday night, the police forcibly entered the Embassy in Quito and captured former vice president Jorge Glas, convicted in his country of corruption and taking refuge in the headquarters since mid-December. Hours earlier, the Government of Daniel Noboa had warned Mexico that it would not give Glas the safe passage that he needs to leave his country as a political asylum. The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López, has ordered tonight the suspension of diplomatic relations with Ecuador. “This is a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico,” said the president.

The Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Alicia Bárcena, confirmed the president’s announcement some time later. “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,” Bárcena said, and announced that the Embassy staff “will leave Ecuador immediately.” “Mexico will appeal to the International Court of Justice to denounce Ecuador’s responsibility for violations of International Law,” the chancellor warned. Article 31 of the Vienna Convention establishes that embassies are national territories and, therefore, inviolable.

The opposition presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez joined the official repudiation of Ecuador. “You may or may not agree with the administration of justice in other countries, but the diplomatic headquarters of any foreign nation are inviolable,” he noted from his social networks.

The police deployment around the Mexican diplomatic headquarters had begun during the afternoon. At night, new armed troops joined, until the assault took place. Ecuador’s argument is that former Vice President Glas was convicted of common corruption crimes and must submit to the ordinary justice of his country. In a lengthy statement titled “We defend national sovereignty, zero impunity,” the Noboa Government considered that the Mexican Embassy had “abused the immunities and privileges” to which it is entitled. Therefore, he said, “Jorge Glas has been captured.” “Ecuador is a sovereign country and we are not going to allow any criminal to go unpunished,” the Government added in the statement.

The Mexican ambassador in charge in Ecuador, Roberto Canseco, was inside the building when the police burst in. “At the risk of my life I defended the honor and sovereignty of my country. This cannot be, it is incredible that something like this has happened,” he said. “I am very worried that they could kill him (Glas). There is no basis for doing this. We were about to leave and suddenly we ran into police, thieves who entered the Embassy at night,” he said.

The assault takes the diplomatic crisis between the two countries to unprecedented levels, after Daniel Noboa’s Administration this Thursday declared Raquel Serur, the Mexican ambassador in the country, persona non grata, and ordered her expulsion. The tension, however, has been brewing for months. Glas, who was vice president of Ecuador in the Governments of Rafael Correa and Lenín Moreno, appeared on December 17 at the Mexican embassy “expressing fear for his safety and personal freedom,” according to the Foreign Ministry. The Ecuadorian police had orders to arrest him to appear over the diversion of million-dollar funds intended for the reconstruction of Ecuador’s coast after the brutal earthquake of 2016. His lawyer said the summons was part of “political persecution.”

Glas, who was in charge of all the ministries of the strategic sectors between the Correa and Moreno governments, was already sentenced to two sentences: one of six years in prison for illicit association in the Odebrecht caseand another eight years for bribery by the Bribery case. Of the 14-year sentence, he only served five in prison. In 2022, a judge – now also arrested for corruption in the judicial system – granted him the precautionary measure. The politician had been free until December when he received the arrest warrant and took refuge in the Mexican embassy.

On March 1, the Government of Daniel Noboa asked Mexico for permission to enter with the security forces to arrest Glas. The police were guarding the exterior of the embassy awaiting instructions. The Executive of Ecuador had maintained that Mexico could not grant the former vice president diplomatic asylum because it could not be granted to those who “are accused, prosecuted or convicted of common crimes, without having served the respective sentences.” However, Mexico did not allow the agents to enter and the case had remained frozen until this Friday’s announcement.

“It is reported that, after an exhaustive analysis of the information received, the Government of Mexico has decided to grant political asylum to Mr. Jorge David Glas Espinel,” reads the statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “which will be officially communicated to the Ecuadorian authorities together with the request that they grant the respective safe passage, in accordance with the 1954 Diplomatic Asylum Convention. In its response, the Mexican Foreign Ministry reminds Ecuador that it is obliged to respect the asylum decision and grant safe passage. Noboa has already said on several occasions that they are not going to grant permission for Glas to leave the Embassy. On Friday, he surrounded the building with police.

The Foreign Ministry also spoke about this on Friday afternoon: “The Government of Mexico rejects the increase in the presence of Ecuadorian police forces outside the Mexican embassy in Quito, which, according to statements by Ecuadorian authorities, is a measure of rejection and disagreement due to statements by Mexican authorities. This constitutes clear harassment of its embassy and a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. It is evident that these actions do not correspond to the usual practices for protecting diplomatic properties.” The statement ends by asking Ecuador to respect sovereignty and “cease the intimidation”: “If this situation continues, Mexico holds Ecuador responsible for any impact on the diplomatic headquarters, its accredited personnel and any person who is under the protection of the State. Mexican in that country.”

The Mexican Government already welcomes into its territory seven other Correa officials who had previously taken refuge in the Embassy in Quito, among them the right-hand man of the former president, Ricardo Patiño, who was also Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador. Also the former president of the Assembly, Gabriela Rivadeneira, the assembly members Soledad Buendía, Carlos Viteri Gualinga, and Edwin Jarrín, who did not have criminal proceedings against them; However, they declared themselves politically persecuted and left the country in 2019.

The climb

The rope has finally broken this week after statements by Andrés Manuel López Obrador. On Wednesday, the Mexican president made reference to Ecuador when discussing the violence suffered by electoral candidates, just after the murder of the candidate for mayor of Celaya (Guanajuato) Gisela Gaytán. “There were elections in Ecuador, the candidate of the progressive forces was, like 10 points up…” said the president in reference to Luisa González, candidate of the Citizen Revolution, whose leader is Rafael Correa, who has shown political affinity with the president. from Mexico.

“So, a candidate who speaks badly about the candidate who is at the top is suddenly murdered, and the candidate who was at the top falls, and the candidate who was in second goes up,” López Obrador continued about the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and the arrival to power of Daniel Noboa. “Creating a rarefied atmosphere of violence, to the extent that the candidates – and this is reported by all the media – wear vests to the debates. But everything armed. Well, the candidate did not win and the most unfortunate thing is that the violence continues, that they just used the moment,” said the president.

The response of the Government of Ecuador the next day was forceful: it ordered the ambassador to leave the country. “Ecuador is still grieving for that unfortunate event that caused shock in Ecuadorian society and threatened democracy, peace and security,” said the Noboa Executive, who also did not want to break diplomatic relations.

Given the measure, López Obrador stated this Friday that he has given instructions to the Mexican Air Force to pick up the ambassador: “They gave 72 hours for her to leave Ecuador, so today a plane is going to leave to bring her.” “Raquel Serur, who is also an exceptional person, a top-level intellectual, from UNAM, a philosopher, companion of a great philosopher, Bolivar Echeverría, Ecuadorian himself, with a great history of social struggle, and Raquel we love her very much and she is “a woman integrates with ideals, with principles,” the president has defended the diplomat who had been in Quito since 2019.