Written by Alexandra Valencia
QUITO (Reuters) – Latin American governments, including regional power Brazil, said on Saturday that Ecuador's embassy was raided to arrest a controversial politician on corruption charges who had been granted asylum by Mexican authorities. rallied around them.
Late Friday night, former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas was detained, prompting Mexico City to quickly suspend ties with Quito, prompting the government of Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador to call it an unprecedented diplomatic violation. He denounced the arrest as an “authoritarian” act. It is also a violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty.
On Saturday, four left-leaning governments in Latin America – Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Cuba – criticized the arrest of Mr Glass, who had been in exile in their embassies since December.
A video circulating on social media shows him being led in a police convoy to the airport in the capital Quito, flanked by heavily armed soldiers. He then boarded a plane en route to a detention center in Guayaquil, the largest city in the Andes.
In a statement from the country's foreign ministry, Brazil's government condemned Ecuador's move as a “clear violation” of international norms prohibiting attacks on foreign embassies.
Ecuador's move against the embassy “must be subject to strong repudiation, whatever the justification for its implementation,” the statement said, underscoring the solidarity of Brasilia and Mexico.
Meanwhile, Colombian President Gustavo Petro argued in a post on X that Latin America “must continue to uphold the norms of international law in the midst of ongoing barbarism around the world.”
Glass, twice convicted of corruption, has been holed up in the embassy in Quito since December when he applied for political asylum, which Mexico granted on Friday.
Ecuadorian authorities unsuccessfully asked Mexico for permission to enter the embassy and arrest Glass.
In 2017, Gras, a fellow leftist and former second-in-command to former President Rafael Correa, was sentenced to six years in prison after being found guilty of accepting bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for government contracts. was sentenced. .
Mr. Glass faces a new arrest warrant on unrelated corruption charges, which the Ecuadorian government denies, claiming he is the victim of political persecution.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
