Photo courtesy of Embajada de Mexico en Ecuador via Wikimedia Commons.
By Mira Crane ’27
Contributing Writer
Days after being arrested at the Mexican Embassy, Jorge Glas, the former Ecuadorian vice president, was found in a coma in his jail cell on April 8.
According to The New York Times, Glas was taken to a military hospital for observation, with a police report stating that he had ingested anti-depressants and sedatives. Glas, who faces embezzlement charges, was granted refuge at the Mexican Embassy in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, as he attempted to avoid arrest. Last week, the former vice president was arrested by the police and transferred to a detention center in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
The police entering the embassy led to diplomatic tension due to a 1961 diplomatic treaty barring governments from entering a foreign embassy without the permission of the embassy’s host country, The New York Times reported.
“Ecuador's police raid of the Mexican Embassy is a serious violation of international law,” Andrew Reiter, associate professor of politics and international relations at Mount Holyoke College, said. “While international law is not always followed, diplomatic law is one of the exceptions. It is the bedrock of international diplomacy and violations are relatively rare.”
According to BBC News, Mexico has suspended diplomatic ties with Ecuador as a result of the Ecuadorian government’s violation of the law. “I expect relations will be strained between them for the foreseeable future,” Reiter told Mount Holyoke News.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the actions of Quito’s police “a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico,” BBC News reported.
According to BBC News, Nicaragua has also severed diplomatic ties with Ecuador due to this incident. Ecuador responded by asking the Mexican ambassador to leave the country after declaring her a persona non grata, or an “unwelcome person.”
Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, justified the unpermitted entrance into the Mexican embassy, explaining he had “taken exceptional decisions in order to protect national security, the rule of law and the dignity of a people who will not tolerate any kind of impunity for criminals, crooks, corrupt people or narco-terrorists,” The Guardian reported.
Aside from serving in several ministerial positions under President Rafael Correa, Glas served as Correa’s vice president from 2013 to 2017, The New York Times reported. He was elected vice president again as part of the government of Lenín Moreno but was forced to resign after a few months. He was found guilty of taking over $13.5 million in bribes and received a prison sentence of six years.
According to The New York Times, he was convicted of a separate bribery charge in 2020 along with former president Correa. Together, they were accused of being part of a group that accepted $8 million in bribes and sentenced to eight years in prison, although Glas was able to get out early. In November 2022, Glas was released from prison but sought asylum from more charges, these ones for embezzlement of public funds.
Mexico officially granted Glas asylum on April 5, a move the Ecuadorian government saw as illegal, leading to their violation of international law and Glas’s arrest, BBC News reported.
Now, Glas is in the hospital. The New York Times reported that, according to Ecuador’s prison authority, his condition is stable, but Glas will remain under medical observation prior to his return to jail.