Mexico has severed diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police stormed its embassy to arrest former vice president Jorge Glass Achi-News

The Mexican government cut diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police stormed the Mexican embassy to arrest Ecuador’s former vice president, an unusual use of force that shocked and offended regional leaders and diplomats.

Ecuadorian police late Friday broke down the outer doors of the embassy in the capital Quito to arrest Jorge Glass, who had been living there since December.

Glass sought political asylum at the embassy after being indicted on corruption charges.

The raid prompted Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to announce the severance of diplomatic relations with Ecuador on Friday evening, while his government’s foreign affairs secretary said the move would be challenged at the World Court in The Hague.

“It’s not possible. It can’t be. It’s crazy,” Roberto Canesco, head of Mexico’s consular section in Quito, told local press as he stood outside the embassy immediately after the raid.

“I’m very worried because they might kill him. There’s no basis for doing that. It’s completely out of the norm.”

On Saturday, Glass was taken from the attorney general’s office in Quito to the port city of Guayaquil, where he will remain in custody at a maximum security prison.

People gathered outside the prosecutor’s office shouted “power” as he left with a convoy of police and military vehicles.

Glass’ attorney, Sonia Vera, told The Associated Press that officers broke into his room and he resisted when they tried to put his hands behind his back.

According to her, the police “knocked him to the floor, kicked him in the head, spine, legs, hands”, and when he “couldn’t walk, they dragged him out”.

Vera said the defense team was not allowed to speak with Glass while he was in the prosecutor’s office, and is now working to file a petition for Bass Corpus.

Authorities are investigating Glass for alleged irregularities in his management of reconstruction efforts following a powerful 2016 earthquake that killed hundreds of people.

He was convicted of bribery and corruption in other cases.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld told reporters on Saturday that the decision to enter the embassy was made by President Daniel Novoa after considering Glass’ “imminent flight risk” and exhausting all options for diplomatic dialogue with Mexico.

Mexico granted Glass asylum hours before the raid.

Sommerfeld said that “it is illegal to grant asylum to people convicted of common crimes and competent courts.”

Alicia Barchana, Mexico’s secretary of foreign relations, posted on social media platform X on Friday that several diplomats were injured during the hack, which she said violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Sommerfeld did not address the injury claims.

Diplomatic posts are considered foreign and “inviolable” soil under the Vienna Convention and law enforcement agencies of the host country are not allowed to enter without the ambassador’s permission.

People seeking asylum have lived anywhere from days to years in embassies around the world, including Ecuador in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lived for seven years because British police could not enter to arrest him.

The hack was condemned by presidents, diplomats and a regional body on Saturday.

Honduran President Shiumera Castro, writing in X, characterized the raid as “an intolerable act for the international community” and “a violation of the sovereignty of the Mexican state and international law” because “it ignores the historic and fundamental right to asylum.”

In a statement, the Organization of American States reminded its members, which include Ecuador and Mexico, of their “commitment” not to “invoke norms of domestic law to justify non-compliance with their international obligations.”

Barcaña announced on Friday that Mexico would take the case to the International Court of Justice “to denounce Ecuador’s responsibility for violations of international law.”

She also mentioned Mexican diplomats.

Novoa became Ecuador’s president last year as the nation struggled with unprecedented drug-trafficking crime.

He declared the country an “internal armed conflict” in January and designated 20 drug-trafficking gangs as terrorist groups that the military was authorized to “neutralize” within the limits of international humanitarian law.

Will Freeman, a fellow in Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the decision to send police to the Mexican embassy raises concerns about the steps Novoa is willing to take to get re-elected.

His term ends in 2025 as he was only elected to finish the term of former President Guillermo Lasso.

“I really hope Novoa doesn’t turn in the direction of Bocale anymore,” Freeman said, referring to El Salvador’s president, Naib Bocale, whose tough-on-crime policies have been heavily criticized by human rights organizations.

“That means he respects the rule of law less in order to get a boost to his popularity ahead of the elections.”

Freeman added that whether Glass is using diplomatic protection is a “separate issue” from the decision to send the police to the embassy.

“We see a pattern like this in Latin America with politicians abusing foreign embassies and jurisdictions, not to escape prosecution but to escape responsibility,” he said.

The Mexican embassy in Quito remains under heavy police guard after the raid – the flashpoint of recent tensions between Mexico and Ecuador.

Vera said Glass’ attorneys fear “something might happen” to him while in custody, given the record of the state’s detention facilities, where hundreds of people have died during violent riots over the past few years.

Those killed while in custody include several suspects in the assassination of a presidential candidate last year.

“In Ecuador, going to prison is actually a death sentence,” Vera said.

“We see that the international political and legal person responsible for the life of Jorge Glass is President Daniel Novoa Ezin.”