Nicaragua breaks ties with Ecuador after raid on Mexican embassy

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) — Nicaragua on Saturday broke "all diplomatic relations" with Ecuador after police forcibly broke into the Mexican Embassy in Quito and arrested former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who had sought political asylum there.

"In the face of the unusual and reprehensible action ... our forceful, emphatic and irrevocable rejection, which we convert into our Sovereign Decision to break all diplomatic relations with the Ecuadorian government," the Nicaraguan government of President Daniel Ortega said in a statement a day after the raid.

The operation in Quito led Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to immediately break off diplomatic ties with Ecuador for what he described as a "flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico."

The statement noted that Nicaragua had withdrawn its ambassador from Quito in 2020, after the Ecuadorian government withdrew support for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had taken refuge for seven years.

"Our solidarity and support, in any legal action that may arise from this, to the President and Government of Mexico," said the statement.

Presidents from Latin America have unanimously spoken out against the raid by Ecuadorian police on the Mexican Embassy on Friday night.

Chile's President Gabriel Boric voiced support for Lopez Obrador, expressing his "deep concern" about the violation of the right to asylum, citing the Convention on Diplomatic Relations, in force since 1961, which establishes the inviolability of mission premises and that "the agents of the receiving State may not enter them without consent."

Colombian President Gustavo Petro also spoke out about the diplomatic crisis between Ecuador and Mexico, saying his country would promote an action by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in favor of Glas, who had been in the Mexican Embassy since Dec. 17 and who "had his right to asylum violated in a barbaric way."

The Colombian Foreign Ministry has asked Honduras, current temporary president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, to convene an extraordinary meeting to address the matter.

Venezuela also condemned the Ecuadorian government's operation in the Mexican Embassy.

"With this excessive lack of modesty and common sense on the part of the Ecuadorian authorities, we alert the governments of the world about the possible emergence of a time of terror for Ecuador, where neofascism as an extreme and totalitarian ideology would be manifesting," added the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

"We urge the international community to take measures against these reprehensible acts that threaten the integrity and full stability of America."

The presidents of Brazil, Honduras, Bolivia and Argentina all expressed regret over the decision of the Ecuadorian government.