Unwelcome Intruders

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Mexico broke off relations with Ecuador over the weekend, after Ecuadoran police broke into the Mexican embassy in the capital Quito, in violation of international law, to arrest a former vice president taking refuge there to avoid serving jail time, the Financial Times reported.

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena said her country would take Ecuador to the International Court of Justice for the invasion, which conservative President Daniel Noboa ordered to take Jorge Glas into custody. A left-winger who served as vice president from 2013 to 2018, Glas was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption but took shelter in the Mexican embassy in December.

During the breaching of the embassy Friday night, police injured several Mexican diplomats and wrestled acting ambassador Roberto Canseco to the ground before leaving the premises in two black Jeep cars.

Noboa said the diplomatic protection Glas was granted was illegal due to the graft charges he faced and it also undermined Ecuadorian sovereignty. On Saturday morning, Glas was transferred to a maximum security prison in the country’s largest city, Guayaquil.

The Noboa-sponsored move marked a rare violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention, which forbids a host government from entering a diplomatic mission’s premises without permission.

As a result, left-wing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador protested a “flagrant violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty” and said he had suspended relations with Ecuador.

Nicaragua followed suit, while Latin American governments across the region – including Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Uruguay – condemned the arrest, the Guardian reported.