London condemns storming of Mexican embassy in Ecuador

London: The United Kingdom has condemned the storming of the Mexican embassy in Ecuador by the local police to detain former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, a spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said.

In the night from Friday to Saturday, the Ecuadorian police stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito using armed vehicles to arrest Glas, who had been sheltering in the diplomatic mission for a long time, media reported. Following the events, Mexico City suspended diplomatic ties with Quito, saying that some Mexican diplomats had been injured as a result of the storming. Mexico City also vowed to appeal to the UN International Court of Justice and urge it to condemn the actions of the Ecuadorian authorities.

“The UK government condemns the actions taken by the Ecuadorean authorities at the Mexican Embassy in Quito on 5 April. All governments must respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions, as set out in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. The safety and security of diplomatic premises and staff is a fundamental principle guiding diplomatic relations,” the spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday.

Glas served five years in prison for bribery and criminal conspiracy before being released in late 2022. However, already in December 2023, he was sentenced to six more years in prison in a corruption case involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, currently known as Novonor. Glas took refuge in the Mexican diplomatic mission in the same month, before an official warrant for his arrest was issued. On April 5, 2024, Mexico granted Glas political asylum. Ecuador called Mexico’s decision illegal and demanded the extradition of the politician.