MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - The Spanish Foreign Ministry on Sunday characterized the storming of the Mexican embassy in Ecuador as a violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and called for reconciliation between Mexico City and Quito.
Late Friday night armed National Police stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest former Ecuadorian President Jorge Glas, who had been sheltering in the diplomatic mission since December 2023. Mexico City broke diplomatic ties with Quito following the incident.
"The forced entry into the Mexican Embassy in Quito is a violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. We call for respect for international law and harmony between Mexico and Ecuador, sister countries of Spain and members of the Ibero-American Community," the ministry said in a statement.
Ecuador's act also violates the 1954 Caracas Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, to which the country is a signatory.
Meanwhile Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil slammed "the complicit silence" of the United States and Canada on the storming of the embassy, calling it "shameful, but not surprising."
"The complicit silence of the US and Canadian governments regarding the kidnapping of Jorge Glas and the violation of Mexican sovereignty by the government of Ecuador is a shameful, but not surprising act," Gil said on the X social media platform. "Accustomed to instrumentalizing international law to attack sovereign nations, they [the US and Canada] remain silent before the true face and barbarities perpetrated by their lackeys."
Latin America will find a way to "restore justice," he added.
On Saturday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called Ecuador's actions "an act of barbarism." He has been joined in his criticism by Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, the United Nations, and the Organization of American States.
Nicaragua joined Mexico in breaking off diplomatic ties with Ecuador over the incident.
Glas was previously sentenced to five years in prison for bribery and criminal conspiracy before being released in late 2022. He was sentenced to six more years in December 2023 in a corruption case involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, currently known as Novonor.
Glas took refuge in the Mexican diplomatic mission the same month before an official warrant for his arrest was issued. On April 5 Mexico granted Glas political asylum. Ecuador called Mexico's decision illegal and demanded the extradition of the politician.
Critics say the forcible re-arrest of Glas is part of a persecution campaign against supporters of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who himself is living in exile outside of Colombia.