Police broke into the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest a former Ecuadorian vice president who had sought political asylum there while being investigated on corruption charges.
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the arrest in the Ecuadorian capital on Friday night was an “authoritarian act” and a “flagrant violation of international law”.
He added Mexico is now cutting ties with the South American nation.
Jorge Glas, who was Ecuador’s vice president between 2013 and 2017, was relieved of his duties because of corruption allegations.
Glas was later jailed for six years after he was found guilty of receiving bribes from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht in exchange for awarding it government contracts.
He was released in November 2022, but has continued to face corruption allegations and in December 2023 a judge ordered him back to prison.
Glas appealed the decision and asked Mexico for political asylum, arguing he was being persecuted by the attorney general’s office in Ecuador.
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The 54-year-old, who served as vice president in the leftist government of Rafael Correa, has claimed he is being persecuted for his political affiliation, which Ecuador’s government denies.
Ecuadorian authorities are still investigating corruption allegations against Glas.
Armed police climbed over the outside wall of Mexico’s diplomatic headquarters before carrying out the arrest on Friday.
Glas was detained just hours after Mexico granted him political asylum.
Footage has emerged showing armed police officers dressed in all black outside the embassy as a large black vehicle drives out of the building’s grounds.
Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican consular section in Quito, can be seen running behind the vehicle before an armed officer pushes him away.
Another officer then slowly drags him to the ground.
Mr Cancesco said: “This is not possible, it cannot be, this is crazy.
“I am very worried because they could kill him. There is no basis to do this, this is totally outside the norm.”
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Alicia Barcena, Mexico’s secretary of foreign relations, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that a number of diplomats suffered injuries during the break-in, adding it violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Ms Barcena said Mexico would take the case to the International Court of Justice “to denounce Ecuador’s responsibility for violations of international law”.
Defending its decision, Ecuador’s presidency said in a statement: “Ecuador is a sovereign nation and we are not going to allow any criminal to stay free.”
Ecuador’s foreign ministry and ministry of the interior did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Mexican embassy in Quito remained under heavy police guard late Friday.
A day earlier, tensions between the two countries escalated after Mexico’s president made statements that Ecuador considered “very unfortunate” about the last elections in which the Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa won.
In reaction, the Ecuadorian government declared the Mexican ambassador persona non grata.
