Mexico is breaking diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police stormed the embassy in Quito

QUITO, Ecuador | Mexico’s government ended diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police broke into the Mexican Embassy late Friday to arrest a former Ecuadorian vice president, an extraordinary use of force that shocked and mystified regional leaders and diplomats.

Ecuadorian police broke through the external doors of the embassy in the capital, Quito, to arrest Jorge Glas, who had been residing there since December. Glas sought political asylum at the embassy after being indicted on corruption charges.

The raid prompted Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to announce the breaking of diplomatic relations with Ecuador Friday evening, while his government’s foreign relations secretary said the move will be challenged at the World Court in The Hague.

“This is not possible. It cannot be. This is crazy,” Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican consular section in Quito, told local press while standing outside the embassy right after the raid. “I am very worried because they could kill him. There is no basis to do this. This is totally outside the norm.”

On Saturday, Glas was taken by armored vehicle from the attorney general’s office to an airport, where he boarded an aircraft for a flight to the port city of Guayaquil, 265 miles (425 kilometers) south of Quito. People who had gathered outside the prosecutor’s office yelled “strength” as the convoy of police and military vehicles moved off.

Ecuador’s corrections agency said Glas will remain in custody at a maximum-security facility in Guayaquil.

Authorities are investigating Glas over alleged irregularities during his management of reconstruction efforts following a powerful earthquake in 2016 that killed hundreds of people. He was convicted on bribery and corruption charges in a separate case.

Defending its decision, Ecuador’s presidency said in a statement: “Ecuador is a sovereign nation and we are not going to allow any criminal to stay free.” López Obrador fired back, calling Glas’ detention an “authoritarian act” and “a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico.”

Alicia Bárcena, Mexico’s secretary of foreign relations, posted on the social platform X that a number of diplomats suffered injuries during the break-in, adding that it violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Diplomatic premises are considered “inviolable” under the Vienna treaties and local law enforcement agencies are not allowed to enter without the permission of the ambassador. People seeking asylum have lived anywhere from days to years living at embassies around the world, including at Ecuador’s in London, which housed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for seven years because British police could not enter to arrest him.

The decision of Ecuadorian authorities was condemned by presidents, diplomats and a regional body on Saturday.

Honduran President Xiomara Castro, writing on X, characterized the raid as “an intolerable act for the international community” and a “violation of the sovereignty of the Mexican State and international law” because “it ignores the historical and fundamental right to asylum.”

The Organization of American States in a statement reminded its members, which include Ecuador and Mexico, of their “obligation” to not “invoke norms of domestic law to justify non-compliance with their international obligations.”

“In this context, it (the OAS) expresses solidarity with those who were victims of the inappropriate actions that affected the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador,” according to the statement released Saturday. The organization added that it deemed a meeting of its permanent council “necessary to address the issue,” but did not set a date.

Bárcena on Friday said Mexico would take the case to the International Court of Justice “to denounce Ecuador’s responsibility for violations of international law.” She also said Mexican diplomats were only waiting for the Ecuadorian government to offer the necessary guarantees for their return home.

Daniel Noboa became Ecuador’s president last year as the nation battled unprecedented crime tied to drug trafficking. After a group of armed individuals assaulted a TV station during a live broadcast in January, he declared the country in an “internal armed conflict” and designated 20 drug-trafficking gangs as terrorist groups that the military had authorization to “neutralize” within the bounds of international humanitarian law.

Ecuador’s ministries of foreign affairs and interior did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Associated Press.

The Mexican Embassy in Quito remained under heavy police guard after the raid — the boiling point of recent tensions between Mexico and Ecuador.

On Thursday, tensions escalated after López Obrador made statements that Ecuador considered “very unfortunate” about last year’s election. In response, the Ecuadorian government declared the Mexican ambassador persona non grata.

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