MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexican embassy in Quito stormed by police, diplomatic ties with Ecuador severed

Ecuador's measure was in breach of international law, AMLO stressed

The Government of Mexico announced it was cutting off all diplomatic ties with Ecuador after local authorities stormed Friday into the Embassy in Quito to arrest former Ecuadorean Vice President Jorge Glas, who has sought asylum in the diplomatic mission.

“Given the flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the injuries suffered by Mexican diplomatic personnel in Ecuador, Mexico announces the immediate severance of diplomatic relations in Ecuador,” Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena wrote on X account.

“Mexico will resort to the International Court of Justice to denounce Ecuador's responsibility for violations of International Law,” she added as Embassy staff were to leave the country at the earliest time possible. “Mexico expects Ecuador to offer the necessary guarantees for the departure of Mexican personnel,” Bárcena added.

“It is the first time in the history of Mexican diplomacy that a Mexican Embassy has been violated from the police point of view,” Bárcena also said in a TV interview. “It seems to us extremely serious that Ecuador has taken this action which, truly, has no precedent in international matters,” she added while describing the case as “unacceptable” because “a central diplomatic principle of international coexistence has been violated.”

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador recalled that Glas was a refugee as his asylum request “due to the persecution and harassment he faces” was being processed. “This is a flagrant violation of international law and Mexico's sovereignty,” AMLO insisted.

In this scenario, the Mexican president instructed Bárcena to “declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with the Government of Ecuador.”

On Thursday, Mexico's Ambassador to Quito Raquel Serur Smeke had been declared “persona non grata” after AMLO's “very unfortunate” remarks regarding the murder of presidential candidate Francisco Villavicencio.

The Mexican head of state had mentioned how “in a very strange way” Correist candidate Luisa González who was ahead in most polls fell behind after being linked to the crime, which resulted in Daniel Noboa's becoming Ecuador's current president.