Why Mexico suspended diplomatic ties with Ecuador after dramatic embassy raids (2024)

AP reported Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican consular section in Quito, as telling local press outside the embassy after the raid, “I am very worried because they could kill him (Glas). There is no basis to do this. This is totally outside the norm.”

Embassies have several rules governing them, including who can enter their premises, and abiding by these rules is seen as sacrosanct for maintaining ties. What prompted Ecuador’s move, and how is it being seen by the rest of the world? We explain.

What happened at the Mexico embassy on Friday?

According to Reuters, Glas has been convicted twice for corruption and has been at the Mexican embassy since December 2023 for seeking political asylum. His request was granted on Friday.

Armed policemen entered the embassy on Friday evening after the government previously asked for permission to do so through a diplomatic channel. Mexico alleged that several diplomats were hurt in the raid. Glas has now been taken into Ecuador police’s custody.

Who is Jorge Glas and why does Ecuador’s govt want his custody?

Glas was VP from 2013 to 2018 under the leftist President Rafael Correa’s government. AP reported that he is being investigated over “alleged irregularities” during his tenure, related to the awarding of government construction contracts.

He was ordered to serve an eight-year sentence in 2018. He left jail briefly in 2022 as his lawyers argued for parole. Finally, he left prison in November 2022 but was again charged with corruption and bribery cases, related to his management of reconstruction efforts after a 2016 earthquake killed hundreds.

Glas has claimed this is a political vendetta from Ecuador’s ruling centre-right government, headed by President Daniel Noboa. But even before Glas, relations between Mexico and Ecuador were strained.

Mexican President Obrador, who leads a progressive parties’ coalition, recently compared the political violence in his country – ahead of the general elections in June – with that of Ecuador. Last year, a prominent opposition left-wing leader was killed during the election campaign in Quito. Himself a leftist leader, Obrador claimed that right-wing parties used the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio to sway the polls in their favour and stem the popularity of the leftist movement in Ecuador.

In South America, socialism was championed for long by countries from the 1990s to 2000s, after colonialism ended. This led to intra-region cooperation and solidarity among governments in the continent. However, Obrador’s comments were criticised by many in Ecuador, including by one of Villavicencio’s daughters, given Mexico’s prominent role in the drug trade in the region that has led to violence over the years.

The Mexican ambassador was declared persona non-grata or deemed unwelcome in Ecuador, following Obrador’s comments. Obrador has also recently criticised conservative governments in Peru and Bolivia, who withdrew their ambassadors from Mexico in response.

Is Glas’s case unusual?

Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld said President Noboa decided the embassy had to be entered, after considering Glas’ “imminent flight risk” and exhausting all possibilities for diplomatic dialogue with Mexico, AP reported. Sommerfeld said, “It is not legal to grant asylum to people convicted of common crimes and by competent courts.”

Instances of political refugees knocking on the doors of embassies are not unusual. In fact, Ecuador itself provided asylum to journalist Julian Assange at its embassy in London from 2012 to 2019. The US government has accused Assange of leaking classified government through his platform WikiLeaks.

He has also been indicted by a US court on charges such as disclosing information on national security. In 2012, the UK government threatened to raid the Ecuador embassy in London. Ecuador’s government said at the time, “This is a clear breach of international law and the protocols set out in the Vienna Convention.”

What does the Vienna Convention say?

The 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations lays down the rules of engagement between countries. Article 22 states: “The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.” Here, “mission” refers to the diplomats, the staff and other representatives in a host country.

The Article further adds: “The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.”

Finally, it states: “The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.” The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963, similarly speaks of how the consent of the head of the consular post is required for authorities of the receiving state to enter it.

How has the world reacted?

Latin American governments were supportive of Mexico following the events of Friday. While Brazil’s government referred to Ecuador’s actions as a “clear violation” of international norms, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Latin America “must keep alive the precepts of international law in the midst of the barbarism that is advancing in the world.”

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Millers said the United States condemns any violation of the convention protecting diplomatic missions.

Meanwhile, the Mexican foreign ministry has said it will file a complaint against Ecuador with the United Nation’s International Court of Justice at The Hague.

(With agency inputs)