Mexico has suspended its diplomatic relations with Ecuador, as ordered by the president Andrés Manuel López Obradorafter Ecuadorian police officers broke into the Mexican Embassy in Quito to arrest the former vice president Jorge Glasafter the Mexican Government granted him the political asylum he had requested.

“Alicia Bárcena, our Secretary of Foreign Affairs, has just informed me that Ecuadorian police forcefully entered our embassy and they detained the former vice president of that country who was a refugee and processing asylum due to the persecution and harassment he faced,” the Mexican president denounced on his social networks.

López Obrador has asserted that “it is a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico”, for which he has ordered his chancellor to “issue a statement on this authoritarian act, proceed legally and immediately declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with the government of Ecuador”.

For her part, the Mexican Foreign Minister, Alicia Bárcena, has confirmed the immediate breakdown of diplomatic relations with Ecuador, stating that the entry of Ecuadorian police officers into the legation represents a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

“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 severance of diplomatic relations with Ecuador,” he indicated on the social network

Mexico denounces attacks on its staff

Glas was subject to a preventive detention order for a case of alleged corruption in which he is currently being prosecuted, after having spent nearly five years in prison for two current convictions for crimes that he rejects, considering that he is a victim of political persecution.

According to the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the former Ecuadorian vice president was at the Mexican embassy in Ecuador since December 17, 2023. However, on Friday night the police entered the premises to arrest him. There it was possible to observe agents climb the walls and fences of the diplomatic headquarters and then leave the residence, heavily guarded by the military, at a time of tension between both governments.

The head of the Foreign Ministry and Political Affairs of the Embassy, ​​Roberto Canseco, has denounced in statements to the press that the Ecuadorian agents They broke in andThey attacked the staff of the diplomatic headquarters. “This is totally unacceptable, this cannot be, it is barbarism,” said Canseco, who He has assured that the agents beat 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 cited by Efe indicates that Glas was detained in the diplomatic unit and transferred to a unit of the Prosecutor’s Office in Quito, although the Ecuadorian authorities, for the moment, have not commented on the matter.