QUITO: Ecuadoran authorities stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito on Friday to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas, who had been granted political asylum there, prompting Mexico to sever diplomatic ties after the "violation of international law".
Images showed police special forces massed outside the embassy and at least one of them scaling its walls, which were already surrounded by police and military.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said authorities "forcibly entered" the building to arrest Glas.
"This is a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico," he said on social media platform X.
Foreign minister Alicia Barcena said the arrest was a "flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations" and Mexican personnel in the embassy had been injured during the incident. "Mexico announces the immediate breaking of diplomatic relations with Ecuador," she said on X.
She added that Mexican diplomatic personnel will immediately leave the South American country and asked Quito to "offer the necessary guarantees" for their movement.
Mexico had complained earlier in the day due to an increased police presence outside its Quito embassy.
The former Ecuadoran vice president -- who served under leftist President Rafael Correa -- sought refuge in the Mexican embassy last December after authorities issued a warrant for his arrest for alleged corruption.
But his asylum request was formally granted on Friday, angering Quito and deepening the diplomatic dispute between the two Latin American nations.
Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa's government called the move an "illicit act" but Mexico insisted it had granted political asylum to Glas "after a thorough analysis" of the situation.
Ecuador's presidential communications department said in a statement that Glas "has been arrested tonight and placed under the orders of the competent authorities."
Former president Correa, who was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for corruption, wrote on X that "not even in the worst dictatorships has a country's embassy been violated."
Local media showed Roberto Canseco, head of the Mexican diplomatic mission, running behind vehicles believed to be transporting Glas from the site, shouting: "It's an outrage!"
Agents prevented Canseco from approaching one of the cars and in the ensuing struggle he is seen falling to the ground.
Before the arrest, Ecuador said that according to international conventions, "it is not legal to grant asylum to people convicted or prosecuted for common crimes and by competent ordinary courts." — AFP
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