The arrest capped a week of growing tensions between the two Latin American countries.
Mexico abruptly suspended bilateral relations with Ecuador in an escalating diplomatic spat after Ecuadorian police forced their way into the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest a former vice president on corruption charges.
Why did Ecuador enter the Mexican embassy?
Heavily armed police wearing balaclavas broke into the Mexican embassy late Friday night and arrested Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s former left-wing vice president, who is wanted on corruption charges.
Glass has been living at the embassy since December after applying for asylum in the North American country, which Mexico only granted on Friday.
Ecuador, which asked Mexico in early March for permission to enter the embassy to detain Glass, claimed that the offer of asylum was illegal because people facing charges should not be granted asylum under international law.
Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador suspended ties with Ecuador immediately after the attack and said he was studying Glass’ case carefully.
The arrest capped a week of growing tensions between the two Latin American countries after Quito declared the Mexican ambassador persona non grata over “unfortunate” comments by leftist López Obrador.
Mexico’s president compared election-related violence in the two countries, claiming last year’s murder of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was unfairly linked to the left-wing candidate in the race, who subsequently lost. Lopez Obrador further accused what he said was a corrupt media of what he said was election rigging.
During López Obrador’s nearly six years in power, the media was a frequent target of his wrath.
Who is Jorge Glass? What charges does he face?
Glass, who served as vice president during the Rafael Correa government from 2013 to 2017, has been convicted twice in corruption cases and now faces new charges of misuse of public resources.
He was first sentenced to six years in prison in late 2017 after a court convicted him of accepting bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for state contracts for the scandal-plagued company.
Glass, 54, was convicted again in 2020 of using contractor funds to fund Correa’s political campaign and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Correa, who has lived in Belgium since leaving office, was found guilty in the same case.
The pair have long claimed the charges were politically motivated, a charge prosecutors deny.
Glass served more than four years in prison before being released in 2022, but a court ruled he needed to serve out the remainder of his sentence, but he was jailed again that same year despite his lawyer’s request that he serve his sentence concurrently and be on parole.
He was last released from prison in November 2022, but Glass faces new charges of misusing funds raised to aid the coastal province of Manabi in rebuilding after a devastating earthquake in 2016.
In December, his lawyers appealed against a judge’s decision to send him back to prison, saying his life could be in danger, but the appeal was rejected.
What has been the regional response?
On Saturday, governments across Latin America’s political spectrum – including Brazil and Colombia on the left, and Argentina and Uruguay on the right – harshly criticized Glass’ arrest.
The Brazilian government condemned Ecuador’s move as a “clear violation” of international norms prohibiting attacks on foreign embassies, while Argentina called for compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
What’s next?
Mexico’s foreign ministry said it would lodge a complaint with the United Nations International Court of Justice, while the government of leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro said it would seek human rights protections for Grasse from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, saying his asylum rights had been “barbarically violated” .
The Washington-based Organization of American States said its permanent council will hold a meeting to discuss the need for strict compliance with international treaties.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
