Mexico breaks relations with Ecuador after invasion of its embassy

Mexico announced yesterday “the immediate breaking” of diplomatic relations with Ecuadorafter police from that country broke into the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas, who had received political asylum.

In a message on social network X, the Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador He described the fact as a “flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico.”

Minutes later, Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena announced the break in relations with the government of Quito and warned that she will resort to the international Court of Justice to denounce Ecuador.

“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 in a video broadcast on X.

The official added that the Mexican diplomatic personnel will leave the South American country immediately and asked Quito that “offers the necessary guarantees” for their movement.

The irruption of uniformed officers into the diplomatic headquarters, something unprecedented in Latin America according to Mexican diplomats, motivated reactions from the candidates for the presidential elections on June 2.

“It is an affront to diplomacy and international law that is inadmissible. I express all my solidarity and support to the president Lopez Obrador in the defense of our sovereignty”said the official candidate and favorite Claudia Sheinbaum on Twitter.

“You may or may not agree with the administration of justice in other countries, but the diplomatic headquarters of any foreign nation are inviolable.””, wrote the center-right opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez, on the same platform.

Jorge Álvarez Máynez, from Movimiento Ciudadano and third in voting intentions, described the events as an “attack against Mexican sovereignty.” “This embassy represents the Mexican State and is inviolable. It is part of our territory,” he also indicated in X.

The tensions between Ecuador and Mexicowho had maintained relations since 1830, have escalated after Glas requested refuge at the Mexican headquarters on December 17.

The crisis worsened after comments by the Mexican president last Wednesday about political violence in both countries.