After former Ecuadorean vice president Jorge Glas was taken into custody by officials on Friday night and removed from the Mexican embassy, Mexico decided to sever ties with Ecuador.
The arrest was made after police broke into Mexico’s embassy in Quito, according to a tweet made by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on X. The president’s office of Ecuador announced in a statement that Glas had been arrested. The former vice president was escorted to the judges court in the city of Andes, where there was a strong military presence.
Glas had been holed up in the Mexican embassy in Quito since December, when he requested political asylum, which Mexico had earlier on Friday granted. He had been found guilty of corruption twice.
Glas served as vice president of Rafael Correa’s Marxist administration from 2013 to 2017.
The former vice president was escorted to the Andean capital’s magistrates court, where there was a sizable military contingent.
As a result of the leftist President Lopez Obrador’s “unfortunate” remarks, Ecuador stated on Thursday that Mexico’s ambassador to Quito was persona non grata, capping a week of growing tensions between the two countries.
Ecuador claims that the promise of asylum made by Mexico was unlawful.
Mexico was charged by the presidency of Ecuador in a statement with “having abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission that housed the former vice president, and granting diplomatic asylum contrary to the conventional legal framework.”
