Mexico suspends relations with Ecuador after embassy storming
Cairo: Hani Kamal El-Din
Mexico has suspended diplomatic relations with Ecuador after Ecuadorian police stormed the Mexican embassy and detained the country’s former vice president, Jorge Glas. About it reports Reuters agency.
Former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, twice accused of corruption, was hiding in the Mexican Embassy in Quito. Last December, he arrived at the embassy and asked for political asylum. The Ecuadorian government later asked Mexico to enter the embassy and arrest Glas, but police were denied access. On Friday, April 5, the Mexican government decided to grant Glas political asylum.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa accused Mexico of “abusing the immunity and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission” and “providing diplomatic asylum contrary to the generally accepted legal framework.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the arrest an “authoritarian act,” a violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty. He also ordered the suspension of diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
In 2017, Ecuador’s former vice president was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of accepting bribes from a construction firm in exchange for giving it government contracts. At the end of 2022 he was released. At the end of 2023, a new case was opened against him for misuse of funds. Glas himself claimed that he was being persecuted for political reasons.
