Mexico breaks diplomatic relations with Ecuador after the arrest of Jorge Glas in its embassy

Mexico will denounce Ecuador before the International Court of Justice for violations of International Law

MADRID, 6 (EUROPA PRESS)

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Alicia Bárcena, announced this Saturday the breaking of diplomatic relations with Ecuador after the arrest of former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas Espinel, whom Mexico had welcomed in its embassy and offered diplomatic asylum despite the reluctance of the authorities of Ecuador.

“In consultations with President Andrés Manuel López 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,” Bárcena announced in a publication on the social network X, formerly Twitter.

Thus, “Mexico’s diplomatic personnel in Ecuador will leave that country immediately,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added, calling on the Ecuadorian authorities to offer “the necessary guarantees for the abandonment of Mexican personnel.”

Furthermore, Mexico has announced that it will denounce Ecuador before the International Court of Justice “for violations of International Law.”

This decision comes, as López Obrador explained after speaking with Bárcena, after “police from Ecuador forcibly entered” his embassy and “took away the former vice president of that country, who was a refugee and processing asylum through the persecution and harassment he faces.

“This is a flagrant violation of International Law and the sovereignty of Mexico, which is why I have instructed our chancellor to issue a statement regarding this authoritarian act, proceed legally and immediately declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with the Government.” of Ecuador,” added the Mexican president.

This Friday, the Government of Ecuador declared that the asylum granted to Jorge Glas Espinel by Mexico constituted in its opinion an “illegal” act and requested the surrender of the former vice president to put him at the disposal of the Ecuadorian Justice.

López Obrador had previously confirmed that, finally, the Mexican authorities would provide political asylum to Glas, accused of corruption and housed for weeks in the Mexican Embassy in Quito.

“What they were looking for is for us to accept that they enter the Embassy or for us to hand over the vice president to them. We cannot do that, that is a question of principles. Mexico’s foreign policy is characterized by protecting politically persecuted people,” he stated. Lopez Obrador.

Glas had remained at the Mexican diplomatic headquarters since mid-December, where he entered citing fear for his safety and personal freedom. The Embassy welcomed him as a guest and his lawyers already reported weeks ago that they had submitted a formal request for political asylum.

This maneuver by the former vice president occurred after the National Police of Ecuador ordered his arrest to give a statement to the Prosecutor’s Office in the case of possible embezzlement of public funds in the reconstruction of the province of Manabí after the 2016 earthquake, which left more of 670 dead.

In a subsequent interview with the Mexican TV channel Foro, Bárcena denounced that the incursion of the Ecuadorian Police into the Mexican Embassy is an event “that is unprecedented” and is “the first time in the history of diplomacy Mexican that a Mexican embassy is violated from a police point of view.

“It is really unacceptable and that is why we are taking actions in these three senses,” stressed the Foreign Minister.

On the other hand, the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, has defended the start of the operation this morning by arguing that the previous conviction against Glas prevails over a condition of political asylum whose validity was also disputed by the Ecuadorian president.

“No criminal can be considered politically persecuted,” Noboa said in a statement after the police operation carried out by the Ecuadorian Police at the Embassy.

Noboa, in his official note published on social networks an hour before the Mexican Foreign Minister announced the break in relations, argues that Mexican diplomacy has “abused immunities and privileges” by granting the former vice president a “diplomatic asylum contrary to to the conventional legal framework” before reiterating that Glas had already been “convicted with an enforceable sentence and had an arrest warrant issued by the competent authorities.”