Ecuador’s Embassy Storming Prompts Mexico to Break Off Relations

(Bloomberg) -- Mexico broke off diplomatic relations with Ecuador after police stormed its embassy in Quito and arrested former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who had sheltered at the mission since December.

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Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena announced the “immediate breaking” of ties on Saturday, citing a “flagrant violation” of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The embassy’s Mexican personnel suffered injuries, she said.

Ecuador raided the embassy hours after Mexico granted political asylum to Glas. An arrest warrant for him was pending since the Ecuadorian Prosecutor General’s Office released chat messages suggesting that a drug trafficker bribed a judge to obtain Glas’ early release from a prison sentence for graft.

The dramatic arrest and mutual accusations of breaching diplomatic protocol are inflaming tensions that date back to Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s election last year. Noboa, 36, defeated a candidate backed by former President Rafael Correa, an ally of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Noboa campaigned on a crackdown against violent gangs in Ecuador that security experts have linked to Mexican crime syndicates. He’s seeking to shore up his standing in a referendum on April 21 that will seek tough anti-crime measures and economic reforms, including allowing temporary work contracts and increased international arbitration of contract disputes between companies and the Ecuadorian state.

Noboa is touring the country to campaign for the proposals as polls suggest the economic measures will be a tough sell.

Read more: Cocaine Crackdown Turns Ecuador’s Young Leader Into a Superstar

After the embassy raid, Glas was transferred to a prison in Guayaquil, the Ecuadorian government said Saturday. Mexico earlier criticized the buildup of Ecuadorian police outside the embassy and asked that its sovereignty be respected.

The dispute calls into question diplomatic standards that have been in place since the Vienna Convention in 1963. Ecuador and Mexico are among the 182 countries that have signed the treaty, which forbids host countries from entering the premises of a foreign diplomatic mission without permission. Mexico will bring the matter before the International Court of Justice, Barcena said.

The Ecuadorian government said that Mexico had “granted political asylum contrary to the conventional legal framework,” without going into detail. “Ecuador is a sovereign country and we will not allow any criminal to go unpunished.”

Brazil and Chile condemned the embassy raid in statements, while the Organization of American States said all countries in the region have an obligation to abide by the Vienna Convention.

Correa, who lives in Belgium after avoiding arrest on a graft conviction in 2020, said on X that Noboa has “lost his mind.”

Ecuador had declared Mexico’s ambassador to the country, Raquel Serur Smeke, persona non grata on Thursday. The Ecuadorian foreign ministry said the move was a result of Lopez Obrador’s recent and “very unfortunate” comments on Ecuador’s 2023 election.

Lopez Obrador told reporters that his friend Correa’s preferred candidate would have won if not for the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, whose death turned the tide of public opinion. Some candidates exploited the tragedy for political gain, he said.

In late 2022, AMLO, as the president is known, expressed support for Peru’s former leader Pedro Castillo, who he said was the victim of a “coup,” and granted asylum to his family. That sparked tensions with Peru’s President Dina Boluarte, who took office after Castillo was ousted and arrested for illegally trying to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

Under the Correa administration, Ecuador famously hosted WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange in its London embassy for seven years after he sought asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden on a rape allegation he denied.

--With assistance from Dale Quinn, Stephan Kueffner and Jose Orozco.

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