MEXICO CITY — An altercation between Ecuadorian President Daniel Novoa and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador escalated into full swing Friday night when Ecuadorian police raided the Mexican embassy in a highly unusual use of force. Legal experts, the president, and diplomats judged that the country had entered a diplomatic crisis. Violation of long-established international agreements.
With Noboa's permission, police entered the embassy and arrested former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Gras, a convicted fugitive who had been living in the country since December. In the months leading up to the police raid on the diplomatic compound, relations between the two countries had become strained and reached a breaking point.
Here's what happened before the raid.
December 17, 2023: Mr. Glass enters the embassy
Mexico's diplomatic secretariat said Glass, who is on parole, appeared at the embassy in the capital Quito and asked for “admission and protection” out of concern for his “personal safety and freedom.” The agency said he was allowed to enter the country “as a guest” based on Mexico's legal framework on international habeas protection and other constitutional and legal norms.
The Ecuadorian government immediately asked Mexican authorities to ask Mr. Glass to leave the embassy.
December 18, 2023: Ecuador's top prosecutor links Glass to drug lord
Ecuador's Attorney General Diana Salazar claims Glass was granted parole because of bribes paid to judges and other officials throughout the justice system by Leandro Norero, an Ecuadorian drug trafficker known as “El Patron.” did. Salazar told the television station that a conversation obtained from a cell phone connected to Norero said the payment was a “little favor” and that “it will be collected when Jorge Glass becomes president.” Told.
December 22, 2023: Ecuador warns Mexico about asylum
In a statement, the Ecuadorian government said it “regrets” the possibility that Glass will be granted asylum and will act “decisively in the highest interests of the nation” if this happens.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said it had summoned Mexico's Ambassador Raquel Cerul to inform her that the grant of asylum was “not illegal” under the 1954 Diplomatic Asylum Convention.
The Convention states that it is “unlawful to grant asylum to a person who, at the time of the application, is accused or indicted in a competent regular court.”
December 28, 2023: Mr. Glass is ordered to return to prison.
Judge Melissa Muñoz ordered Glass' arrest, ruling that he had not complied with one of the legal requirements for parole. She sentenced Glass to serve the remainder of his sentence, totaling two years and 11 months.
Mr. Glass was convicted in two separate bribery and corruption cases, one related to Brazilian construction company Odebrecht and the other stemming from a scheme to collect bribes for public procurement. Ta. He was serving his sentence concurrently.
His lawyers had argued that he was entitled to parole because he had served 60% of an eight-year sentence for his role in the bribery scheme. The law states that prisoners are eligible for parole if they have completed 40% of their sentence and meet other requirements.
Attorney Edison Loaiza said his client would not turn himself in because his “life and integrity are at risk” in prison, where he said he had been threatened and extorted. Loaiza added that he plans to appeal Muñoz's decision.
Glass is also under investigation for his management of a fund meant for recovery efforts after the 2016 earthquake that killed hundreds of people.
March 1, 2024: Ecuador asks Mexico for permission to access its embassy
Ecuador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on social media platform
It is unclear whether Mexico has complied with Ecuadorian officials' request.
April 3, 2024: Mexican president questions Noboa's election
Mexican President López Obrador went off topic at a morning press conference, saying his candidate had won a “dubious” election victory in Ecuador after the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead after leaving a campaign event in August. suggested.
Mr. López Obrador did not mention Mr. Noboa by name, but suggested that the candidate may have “taken advantage of this moment” to win the election. He added that violence remains endemic in Ecuador.
April 4, 2024: Ecuador expels Mexican ambassador
The Ecuadorian government declared López Obrador a dishonorable character and ordered him to leave the country because of his doubts about the election results. She has served as Mexico's ambassador to Ecuador since 2019.
López Obrador said he would send military aircraft to bring the ambassador home.
April 5, 2024: Mexico grants asylum, prompts raid.
In a statement, Mexico's diplomatic secretariat rejected the “intensified Ecuadorian police presence” outside the Quito embassy, calling it “harassment” and a “serious violation of the Geneva Conventions.” The Mexican government later granted Mr. Glass political asylum.
Hours later, police broke through the embassy's outer door. Mr. Novoa authorized the raid on the grounds that Mr. Glass posed an immediate flight risk.
Glass' attorney, Sonia Vela, told The Associated Press that Glass resisted when police entered her room and tried to put her hands behind her back. She said the officers then “slammed him to the floor and kicked him in the head, spine, legs and hands” and dragged him away when he “could no longer walk.”
That night, President López Obrador announced that his government had severed diplomatic relations with Ecuador, and Mexico's foreign minister said he would challenge the raid at the World Court in The Hague.
Hours later, Ecuadorian authorities took Glass to a high-security prison in the port city of Guayaquil.
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Associated Press writer Megan Janetsky in Mexico City contributed to this report.
