Mexico Breaks Diplomatic ties with Ecuador after Quito Embassy raid

Mexico broke its diplomatic relations with Ecuador after the Ecuadorian police raided the Mexican embassy in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito, on 5 April 2024. Ecuador police raided the Mexican embassy to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas, who was granted political asylum by the  Mexican government.

Terming the raid of the Ecuadorian police raid on its embassy in Quito, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador criticised the Ecuadorian government's action as a clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 and breach of its sovereignty.

Brazil has criticised the Ecuadorian police step, and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed his concern over the incident.

Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961

The United Nations Conference on Diplomatic Intercourse and Immunities was organised by the  United Nations in Vienna, Austria, from 2 March to 14 April 1961. The treaty, known as the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, defines the terms and principles governing how countries should treat each other's diplomatic representatives. 

Under the Convention, a country can open its diplomatic mission in another country. The country where the diplomatic mission is set up is called a receiving state.

Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 provides that: 

• The premise of a diplomatic mission shall be inviolable. 
• The agents of the receiving state (here, Ecuador) may not enter the diplomatic mission of a foreign country except with the consent of the mission head of the foreign country(here, Mexico). 
• 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 by the receiving state.
• The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the foreign diplomatic mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.

Who is Jorge Glas?

The man at the centre of the diplomatic storm between Mexico and Ecuador, Jorge Glas, is a former vice- president of the country. He was the vice president of Ecuador from 2013-2017 under  former President Rafael Correa's. He has  been convicted on corruption charges  twice, 

In 2017, he was sentenced to six years in prison after being found guilty of receiving over $13.5 million in bribes.In 2020 he was held guilty of corruption charges in another bribery case.

 In 2022, he was released by the court in a controversial ruling.

Fearing arrest, Jorge Glas moved into the  Mexican embassy in Quito on December 17, 2023. He sought political asylum there, and the Mexican government granted him asylum just before the Ecuadorian police raided the Mexican embassy. 

Ecuador 

Ecuador is located in the northwestern part of the South American continent.

Capital: Quito 

Currency: US dollar 

President: Daniel Noboa