Ecuador condemned after police raid Mexican Embassy
International leaders have condemned Ecuador after police in the country’s capital broke into the Mexican Embassy to arrest a former vice president who had been granted political asylum.
The raid late on Friday prompted Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to break off diplomatic relations with Ecuador, while his government’s foreign relations secretary said the move will be challenged at the World Court in The Hague.
Police broke through the external doors of the embassy in Quito to arrest Jorge Glas, who had been residing there since December.
He had sought asylum after being indicted on corruption charges and it had been granted hours earlier.
The break-in was widely condemned. The Organisation of
American States in a statement reminded its members, which include Ecuador and Mexico, of their obligation not to “invoke norms of domestic law to justify non-compliance with their international obligations”.
The Spanish foreign ministry said: “The entry by force into the Embassy of Mexico in Quito constitutes a violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. We call for respect for international law and harmony between Mexico and Ecuador, brotherly countries to Spain and members of the Ibero-american community.”
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: “The United States condemns any violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and takes very seriously the obligation of host countries under international law to respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions.”
Alicia Barcena, Mexico's secretary of foreign relations, posted on X that a number of diplomats suffered injuries during the break-in.
She said Mexico will take the case to the International Court of Justice “to denounce Ecuador's responsibility for violations of international law”. She also recalled Mexican diplomats.
Glas was taken from the attorney general’s office in Quito to the port city of Guayaquil, where he will remain in custody at a maximum-security prison.