It was late on Friday that Ecuadorian police stormed the Mexican embassy in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, to arrest former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas.
Glas, who has lived at the embassy since last December, has sought political asylum there after being charged with corruption. And the police raid took place, according to AP, only hours after he was granted asylum.
A big fight has now broken out between the countries, whose relationship was already frosty. Daniel Noboa was elected president in January, something Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador recently described as “very unfortunate.”
Flee to the embassy
López Obrador calls Friday’s arrest “a flagrant violation of international law and Mexico’s sovereignty” – and the country is now breaking diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
Ecuador’s presidential office has in turn defended the arrest by saying that Ecuador is “a free nation” that will not allow any criminal to go free, AP reports.
Jorge Glas was vice president of Ecuador from 2013-2017, but was forced to leave his post after being sentenced to several years in prison for corruption. Glas was paroled last year and then fled into the Mexican embassy.