The government of Mexico announced the breaking of diplomatic relations with Ecuador, after police from that country broke into the Mexican embassy to arrest Jorge David Glas Espinel, former Ecuadorian vice president, who since December 2023 had been taking refuge on Mexican soil.
Yesterday morning, the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced the decision to give political asylum to Glas, accused of alleged acts of corruption.
In response, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry assured that the political asylum granted constituted an illegal act.
At night, elements of the police of the South American country forcibly entered the Mexican embassy and detained Glas, attacking, in the process, Roberto Canseco, who was left in charge of the embassy after Raquel Serur Smeke was declared persona non grata.
Through a statement, the presidency of Ecuador assured that Glas was captured after the Mexican embassy “abused” the immunity and privileges granted as a diplomatic mission, by granting diplomatic asylum contrary to the conventional legal framework.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador considered the event as “a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico,” and instructed the Foreign Ministry to declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
ECUADOR “VIOLATES SOVEREIGNTY OF MEXICO”
After the Ecuadorian police yesterday entered the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest the former vice president of Ecuador, Jorge David Glas Espinel (2013-2018), President Andrés Manuel López Obrador instructed the Mexican Foreign Ministry to suspend relations with the country South American.
Alicia Bárcena, our Secretary of Foreign Affairs, has just informed me that police from Ecuador forcibly entered our embassy and detained the former vice president of that country who was a refugee and processing asylum due to the persecution and harassment he faces,” he said. the agent in his X account.
Likewise, he added that the acts carried out by the Ecuadorian authorities are “a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico, for which I have instructed our chancellor to issue a statement about this authoritarian act, proceed legally and immediately. declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with the government of Ecuador.”
For her part, Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena said in of diplomatic relations with Ecuador.”
In an interview with local media, the head of the Foreign Ministry of the Mexican mission in Ecuador, Roberto Canseco, reported attacks he received from the police, with whose members he struggled until he fell to the ground.
In addition to police, members of the Ecuadorian army yesterday surrounded the Mexican embassy in Quito. Photo: Reuters
At the risk of my life I defended the honor and sovereignty of my country, this cannot be, it is incredible that something like this has happened,” said the diplomat.
Through a statement, the presidency of Ecuador assured that “having abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission that houses Jorge Glas, and granting diplomatic asylum contrary to the conventional legal framework, his capture has been carried out.” ”.
No criminal can be considered politically persecuted. Jorge Glas has been sentenced with an enforceable sentence and had an arrest warrant issued by the competent authorities,” added the government of Daniel Noboa and reiterated “respect for the Mexican people who share our feelings for the fight against corruption that affects our countries. ”.
Yesterday, the government of Mexico granted political asylum to Jorge Glas Espinel, former vice president of Ecuador during the government of Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and who since December 2023 was taking refuge in the Mexican embassy in Quito after an arrest warrant was issued against him for corruption.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday that after carrying out an “exhaustive analysis” of the Ecuadorian politician’s request and the information received, the Mexican government decided to grant him political asylum.
WE RECOMMEND YOU: VIDEO: Police enter the Mexican embassy in Ecuador to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas
Likewise, the Foreign Ministry reported that together with the notification to the government of Daniel Noboa, the request would be sent to grant Glas the respective safe passage in accordance with the 1954 Diplomatic Asylum Convention, of which both countries are parties and therefore Ecuador is “obliged to immediately provide the corresponding safe conduct.”
However, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry responded that the political asylum granted by Mexico to Glas constituted “an illicit act of the State that grants, supports an evasion of justice by the Ecuadorian State and promotes impunity.”
Consequently, the agency indicated “Ecuador reiterates that it will not grant any safe conduct, since it does not proceed within the framework” of the 2002 UN and 1996 Inter-American anti-corruption conventions.
The police used a van to enter through the gate of the Mexican embassy to arrest Jorge Glas. Photo: AFP
In this context, President López Obrador also reported that yesterday he would send a plane from the Mexican Air Force to repatriate the Mexican ambassador to Ecuador, Raquel Serur Smeke, who was declared a person not grateful in the South American country.
The tensions between both countries worsened last Wednesday, when the Mexican president expressed that the assassination of the Ecuadorian candidate Fernando Villavicencio, in August 2023, caused the voting intention of Luisa González, a Correísta candidate who was leading the polls towards The presidency.
She “remains a suspect after this murder, she continues campaigning in circumstances, I consider, very difficult because imagine all the media, but she continues,” said the president.
-With information from Raúl Flores and Miguel Alejandro Rivera
THEY ACCUSE PROTECTION OF FUGUERS
Verónica Sarauz, widow of the former candidate for the presidency of Ecuador murdered on August 9, 2023, Fernando Villavicencio, pointed out that he himself “said it, when he was a candidate, that it was the Mexican president who had sinister, hidden links with these groups that today operate in Ecuador.”
In an interview with Pascal Beltrán del Río, for Imagen Radio, Sarauz expressed that “Mexico has become a kind of lair for all those who are called to trial here for corruption issues.” He insisted that our country “cannot continue sheltering these people, because they are not politically persecuted, they are wanted by Ecuadorian justice.”
Finally, he assured that, from Mexico, these characters “generate connections against Ecuador and against its democracy.”
Such is the case of Rafael Correa’s former vice president, Jorge Glas, who “is sentenced by the Ecuadorian justice system for corruption crimes,” accused of embezzlement of funds in the Petro Ecuador company and the Odebrecht plot.
However, before his arrest, the Mexican government had granted him political asylum to leave Ecuador.
-From the Editor
REACTIONS
“The assault on the Mexican embassy by the government of Ecuador, with the aim of kidnapping former vice president J. Glas, constitutes an intolerable act for the international community, given that it ignores the historical and fundamental right to asylum.” Xiomara Castro, president of Honduras.
What the Noboa government has done is unprecedented in Latin American history. Not even in the worst dictatorships has a country’s embassy been violated. “We do not live in a State of law, but in a State of barbarism, with an improvised system that confuses the homeland with one of its banana plantations.” Rafael Correa, former president from Ecuador.
The entry of the police into the Mexican embassy in Quito was very serious. “It doesn’t even happen like that in wars.” Cecilia Soto, former ambassador of Mexico in Brazil.
DIPLOMATIC FUCKS
In 2019, the Mexican ambassador to Bolivia, María Teresa Mercado, was expelled from the country by former president Jeanine Áñez, who accused her of protecting figures close to Evo Morales.
In 2022, ambassador Pablo Monroy Conesa was declared a person not grateful in Peru due to “the repeated expressions of high authorities” regarding local politics.
Raquel Serur is the third ambassador of the current administration to be expelled from a nation.
