Ecuador Detained Former Vice President Jorge Glas at Mexican Embassy in Quito

06.04.2024 12:13

Photo: AP Photo / Dolores Ochoa

The Ecuadorian authorities have detained former Vice President Jorge Glas at the Mexican embassy in Quito, Reuters reported.

The former Ecuadorian vice president arrived at the Mexican embassy in Quito last December to request protection and was granted guest access. The Ecuadorian government later asked Mexico for permission to enter the embassy and arrest Glas, but police were denied access.

On Friday, the Mexican government decided to grant political asylum to Glas. Ecuador said Mexico granting asylum to former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas is illegal and demanded that the politician be extradited.

Glas, who was released at the end of 2022 after five years in prison for bribery and criminal conspiracy, was sentenced to six years in prison in December 2023 in a corruption case involving the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. The issuance of a warrant for his arrest occurred after he took refuge at the Mexican diplomatic mission.

Quito earlier declared Mexican Ambassador Raquel Serur persona non grata because of the Mexican president's remarks about the 2023 elections in Ecuador. The Mexican president, in turn, said he does not intend to sever relations with Ecuador or expel its ambassador from the country.

The Ecuadorian government has confirmed the detention of former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas who was granted asylum at the Mexican Embassy in Quito, calling the police attack on the Mexican diplomatic mission "defense of national sovereignty," the Ecuadorian presidential office said on Saturday.

"We defend the national sovereignty, no impunity ... After abusing the immunity and privileges provided to the diplomatic mission housing Jorge Glas and granting him diplomatic asylum, contrary to the generally accepted legal framework, his detention was conducted," Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa's office said on X.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador instructed Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena to immediately announce the suspension of relations with Ecuador after Ecuadorian police broke into the Mexican diplomatic mission to detain former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas.

“Our Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena just informed me that the Ecuadorian police forcibly entered our embassy and detained that country's former vice president, who was a refugee and was seeking asylum due to the persecution and accusations he faced. This is a blatant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico, so I instructed our secretary to issue a statement... to act within the law and to immediately announce the suspension of diplomatic relations with the government of Ecuador," the Mexican president wrote on X.