Latin American governments rally round Mexico after embassy raid in Ecuador By Reuters

By Alexandra Valencia

QUITO (Reuters) -Latin American governments, together with regional heavyweight Brazil, rallied round Mexico on Saturday after its embassy in Ecuador was raided to arrest a controversial politician who had been granted asylum by Mexican authorities.

The late Friday night time seizure of Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s former vice chairman who was detained on graft fees, triggered a suspension of relations with Quito by Mexico Metropolis, with the federal government of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blasting the weird diplomatic incursion and arrest as an “authoritarian” act in addition to a breach of worldwide regulation and Mexico’s sovereignty.

The federal government of Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa had argued asylum protections had been unlawful due to the corruption fees Glas is going through.

Nonetheless, beneath worldwide regulation, embassies are thought-about the sovereign territory of the nation they characterize.

On Saturday, governments throughout the political spectrum in Latin America – together with Brazil and Colombia on the left, and Argentina and Uruguay on the proper – sharply criticized the arrest of Glas, who had sought refuge within the embassy since December.

He could possibly be seen on video circulating on social media being taken by police convoy to the airport within the capital Quito, flanked by closely armed troopers. He then boarded a aircraft en path to a jail in Guayaquil, the Andean nation’s largest metropolis.

Photographs on social media, together with one posted by Cuba’s international minister, confirmed what gave the impression to be the embassy’s wall being scaled by armed police or troopers. Reuters couldn’t instantly verify the authenticity of the images.

Brazil’s authorities condemned Ecuador’s transfer as a “clear violation” of worldwide norms prohibiting such a raid on a international embassy.

Ecuador’s transfer towards the embassy “should be topic to sturdy repudiation, regardless of the justification for its implementation,” in keeping with a press release from Brazil’s international ministry, which burdened Brasilia’s solidarity with Mexico.

‘GRAVE VIOLATIONS’

In an interview with native broadcaster Milenio on Saturday morning, Mexico’s prime diplomat Alicia Barcena expressed shock at Ecuador’s incursion into the nation’s embassy, positioned in Quito’s monetary district, including that some embassy personnel had been injured within the raid. She added that Glas was granted asylum after an exhaustive evaluation of the circumstances surrounding the accusations he faces.

The Mexican international ministry has introduced it is going to file a criticism with the United Nation’s Worldwide Courtroom of Justice for “grave violations of worldwide regulation.”

Additionally on Saturday, the Washington-based Group of American States issued a name for dialogue to resolve the escalating dispute between Ecuador and Mexico, including in a press release {that a} session of the physique’s everlasting council will likely be convened to debate the necessity for “strict compliance with worldwide treaties, together with people who assure the proper to asylum.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in the meantime, argued in a submit on X that Latin America “should preserve alive the precepts of worldwide regulation within the midst of the barbarism that’s advancing on the planet.”

Petro’s authorities famous it is going to search human rights authorized protections for the now-detained Glas, in keeping with a separate assertion.

Glas, convicted twice for corruption, had been holed up within the embassy in Quito since in search of political asylum in December, a request Mexico granted on Friday.

Ecuadorean authorities had unsuccessfully sought permission from Mexico to enter the embassy and arrest Glas.

In 2017, Glas, the previous second-in-command to ex-President Rafael Correa, additionally a leftist, was sentenced to 6 years in jail after he was discovered responsible of taking bribes from Brazilian development agency Odebrecht in change for awarding it authorities contracts.

As he confronted a recent arrest warrant on separate graft fees, Glas has claimed he’s the sufferer of political persecution, a cost Ecuador’s authorities has denied.