CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced on Tuesday the immediate closure of his country’s diplomatic missions in Ecuador following a controversial raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito.
Maduro made the announcement during a virtual summit of CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), where regional presidents discussed potential sanctions against Ecuador in response to the embassy incident.
The current chair of CELAC, President Xiomara Castro of Honduras, declared, “We strongly condemn” the raid, calling it “barbaric.”
The raid occurred on April 5 when Quito’s security forces entered the Mexican embassy to arrest former Ecuadoran vice president Jorge Glas, who was sought on corruption charges and had been granted asylum by Mexico.
Maduro demanded Glas’s release from the maximum-security prison where he is currently held and urged Ecuador to hand him over to Mexico.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva proposed forming a commission to assess Glas’s health status.
The embassy incursion triggered international outrage, prompting Mexico to sever diplomatic ties with Ecuador and withdraw its diplomats from the country.
Mexico subsequently filed a lawsuit against Ecuador at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, seeking its suspension from the United Nations.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called on CELAC member states to support Mexico by co-signing its complaint at the UN court.
Numerous Latin American nations, along with Spain, the European Union, the United States, and the UN Secretary-General, denounced the embassy intrusion as a violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations.
Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa defended the embassy raid, citing the need to detain Glas due to a perceived flight risk, and expressed willingness to resolve differences with Mexico despite a local court ruling the operation “illegal and arbitrary.”
The high court’s ruling deemed the arrest illegal as security forces lacked a warrant to enter the embassy. However, Glas remains detained in a high-security prison in Guayaquil pending corruption cases.
Ecuador’s absence from the regional meeting underscored heightened tensions, with Ecuadoran electoral authorities suspending voting by nationals in Mexico for an April 21 referendum on crime measures due to security concerns.
The National Electoral Council cited insufficient time to arrange private security for over 1,300 Ecuadoran voters in Mexico City and Monterrey amid escalating diplomatic strains.
