BarcelonaDiplomatic crisis between Mexico and Ecuador. The Mexican government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has suspended diplomatic relations with Quito after Ecuadorian police entered the Mexican embassy in the country on Friday night and took into custody former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas, who was taking refuge there and to whom Mexico had granted asylum.
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Glas, who was vice president of Rafael Correa’s government between 2013 and 2017, had been convicted twice of corruption, but complained of being the subject of political persecution. López Obrador has described the arrest of Glas as an “authoritarian” act and has said that it is a violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty. He has also announced that he has ordered his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Bárcena, to suspend diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
For its part, Ecuador argues that Mexico’s offer of asylum was illegal and denies that there is political persecution. In a statement, the presidency of Ecuador accuses Mexico of “abusing the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission that housed the former vice president and of granting diplomatic asylum contrary to the conventional legal framework.”
Ecuadorian authorities had asked Mexico for permission to enter the embassy and arrest Glas, who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2017 after being found guilty of taking bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for contracts. governmental Glas, who has a preventive arrest warrant for another corruption case, has said he is being persecuted because of his political affiliation, which Ecuador’s government denies, Reuters reports.
The arrest of Glas comes after a week of escalating tensions in which Ecuador, last Thursday, declared the Mexican ambassador in Quito persona non grata for López Obrador’s “unfortunate” comments about Ecuador’s bloody election last year, in which a presidential candidate was killed. On Friday night, the police forcefully entered the embassy and arrested the former vice president to take him, amid a strong military presence, to the court of inquiry in the Andean capital.
2024-04-06 13:41:20
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