The former vice president of Ecuador, Jorge Glas, was detained by the police at the Mexican embassy in Quito, where he had been taking refuge since December even though the Mexican Government had granted him asylum hours before.
“The Security Block detains Jorge Glas,” confirmed the Government of Ecuador in a message on social networks about this instance with police, military, and Executive commanders that it created to coordinate operations against organized crime. Shortly after, the Presidency of the Republic indicated that Glas, who was in charge of all the ministries of the strategic sectors between the Governments of Rafael Correa and Lenín Moreno, was “put under the orders of the competent authorities.”
Likewise, he justified the police operation to break into the headquarters of the Mexican Embassy in Quito. “Every embassy has a single purpose, to serve as a diplomatic space to strengthen relations between countries,” he said, denying that Glas is a “politically persecuted person” and stressing that the former vice president had been convicted “with an enforceable sentence.” (firmly) and had an arrest warrant issued”.
Furthermore, the Ecuadorian Government claimed that the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission had been “abused” and that Mexico granting asylum to Glas was “contrary to the conventional legal framework”, which is why the capture was carried out. “Ecuador is a sovereign country and we are not going to allow any criminal to go unpunished,” he added, and then reiterated his “respect for the Mexican people who share our feelings for the fight against corruption.”
After that, Glas was transferred in an armored vehicle and under a strong security device to the Quito airport, where he boarded an aircraft heading to Guayaquil. Once there, Glas was sent to the maximum security prison of La Roca, as confirmed in a statement by the National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI).
Glas has two sentences for the Odebrecht and bribery cases, six and eight years respectively. Of the total, he has only served five in prison. He was provisionally released in 2022, but in December he received a new arrest warrant and took refuge in the Mexican embassy.
Ecuador’s justifications were not accepted by the Mexican Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which ordered the suspension of diplomatic relations. “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. ”Lopez Obrador reported through his account on X, which has considered the act as “authoritarian” and a “flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico.”
La invasión de Ecuador a la embajada de México es un acto de guerra. Todos las democracias en América Latina deben romper de inmediato relaciones con el demente de Noboa. pic.twitter.com/X4mkhHijs0
— Daniel Quintero Calle (@QuinteroCalle) April 6, 2024
In this sense, the Mexican Foreign Minister, Alicia Bárcena, made the order effective and confirmed the breaking of diplomatic relations with Ecuador. “Mexico announces the immediate breaking of diplomatic relations with Ecuador,” he said on the social network X.
During the night of this Friday, the Police went to the consular compound to apprehend Glas – who had been inside since December 17, 2023 – where police officers could be seen climbing walls and fences of the diplomatic headquarters and then leaving that residence, which was heavily guarded by the military from early on, at a time of tension between both governments.
The head of the Foreign Ministry and Political Affairs of the Embassy, Roberto Canseco, in statements to journalists, denounced that the Ecuadorian agents broke in and attacked the guard personnel of the diplomatic headquarters. “This is unacceptable, this cannot be, it is barbarism,” said Canseco and reported that the agents hit him when he confronted them to try to prevent them from violating the space of the Mexican Embassy in Quito.
The former president of Ecuador Rafael Correa (2007-2017) said that the current president, Daniel Noboa, confuses the country “with one of his banana farms.” “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 one that confuses the homeland with one of its banana farms,” Correa considered on social networks.
This episode occurred one day after the Government of Ecuador declared the Mexican ambassador in Quito, Raquel Sesur Smeke, ‘persona non grata’, due to comments by the president of Mexico regarding the shooting murder on August 9, 2023, of the former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, leaving an electoral rally in Quito.
The Mexican president said that the murder harmed above all Luisa González, the presidential candidate of the Citizen Revolution Movement, led by the former progressive ruler Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
However, the Ecuadorian Government described López Obrador’s opinions as “very unfortunate”, at a time when the country is still mourning the murder of Villavicencio, a crime that “caused shock in Ecuadorian society and attacked democracy. Peace and security”. In addition, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry invoked the principle of “non-intervention” in the internal affairs of another country and the Vienna Convention to take the diplomatic measure that implies the departure of the ambassador from the country.
San Miguel Times
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