By Alexandra Valencia and Brendan O’Boyle
QUITO/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Ecuadorean authorities arrested former Vice President Jorge Glas on Friday night, seizing him from the Mexican embassy and prompting Mexico to droop bilateral relations.
Glas, 54, convicted twice of corruption, had been holed up within the embassy in Quito since in search of political asylum in December, a request Mexico granted earlier on Friday.
Police forcefully entered Mexico’s embassy in Quito earlier than making the arrest, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador posted on X.
The Ecuadorean president’s workplace mentioned in an announcement it had arrested Glas, who was vice chairman beneath the leftist authorities of Rafael Correa between 2013 and 2017.
Sonia Vera, the worldwide lawyer for Glas, mentioned by phone that his staff was requesting assistance on an inter-American stage with the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court docket of Human Rights, in addition to with the United Nations Safety Council and Basic Meeting.
There was a heavy navy presence on the magistrates courtroom within the Andean capital, the place the previous vice chairman was taken.
The arrest caps per week of escalating tensions between Mexico and Ecuador, which on Thursday declared Mexico’s ambassador in Quito persona non grata, citing “unlucky” feedback from the leftist President Lopez Obrador.
Ecuador contends that Mexico’s asylum supply was unlawful.
In an announcement, Ecuador’s presidency accused Mexico of “having abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission that housed the previous vice chairman, and granting diplomatic asylum opposite to the traditional authorized framework.”
Lopez Obrador mentioned he had instructed Mexican Overseas Minister Alicia Barcena to droop diplomatic ties with Ecuador, calling the arrest an “authoritarian” act and a violation of worldwide legislation and Mexican sovereignty.
Barcena introduced the “quick” suspension of diplomatic ties with the South American nation shortly afterward on X and added later that embassy workers would return to Mexico.
Ecuadorean authorities had sought permission from Mexico to enter the embassy to arrest Glas, who was sentenced to 6 years in jail in 2017 after he was discovered responsible of receiving bribes from Brazilian building agency Odebrecht in change for awarding it authorities contracts.
Glas, who has a preventive arrest warrant out on one other corruption case, has complained that he’s being persecuted for his political affiliation, which Ecuador’s authorities denies.
Ecuadorean officers this week have been angered by Lopez Obrador’s feedback on the South American nation’s bloody elections final yr, wherein a presidential candidate was assassinated.
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa took workplace late final yr and shortly confronted an escalating battle with drug gangs, which prompted him to declare a nationwide state of emergency early this yr, which he prolonged final month.