After the declaration as 'persona non grata' of the Mexican ambassador in Quito and her subsequent expulsion from the country, the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced that his country will give political asylum to the man who was vice president of Ecuador with Rafael Correa for ten years , Jorge Glas, in another episode of the diplomatic clash that began when the Mexican president accused his Ecuadorian counterpart of benefiting in the South American country's elections from the murder of candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
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Jorge Glas, former vice president of Ecuador, will obtain political asylum in Mexico, after the departure of the Mexican ambassador in Quito, Raquel Serur.
To the former president, who until now was hiding from the authorities of his country in the Mexican Embassy, the status has been guaranteed “after an exhaustive analysis of the information received”, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) of Mexico in a statement. Therefore, “the Government of Mexico has decided to grant political asylum to Mr. Jorge David Glas Espinel,” he added.
The decision, it continues, will be officially communicated to the Ecuadorian authorities along with the request that they grant the respective safe passage. in accordance with the 1954 Diplomatic Asylum Conventioninternational treaty to which Mexico and Ecuador are party states.
Glas, convicted twice of corruption, has been refugee in the Mexican Embassy in Quito since he requested political asylum in December, arguing that he is being persecuted by the Attorney General's Office.
The Ecuadorian authorities had requested permission from Mexico to enter the Embassy and arrest Glas, sentenced to six years in prison in 2017 after being found guilty of receiving bribes of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for awarding it public contracts.
When the Ecuadorian government announced the expulsion of Raquel Serur on Thursday, it did not refer to Glas, but instead cited “unfortunate” comments by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In this regard, the Foreign Ministry reproached the actions of Daniel Noboa's Government by specifying that it instructed Serur to return to Mexico to “protect his safety and integrity.” Now The Embassy will be in charge of Roberto Cansecocurrent head of the Foreign Ministry, and will continue to “operate normally.”
López Obrador also admitted that will not take similar measures for the Ecuadorian Embassy in Mexico. Therefore, diplomatic relations have not been broken.
How did the tensions start?
On Wednesday, The Mexican president compared the assassination last year of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio to violence current in the middle of the electoral season in Mexico, where several local candidates have been shot dead.
Obrador, in words that gave rise to interpretation, referred to the murder of the candidate, insinuating that Daniel Noboa benefited from his death.
“A candidate who speaks badly about the candidate who is at the top is suddenly assassinated and the candidate who was at the top falls and the candidate who was in second rises,” said the top Mexican president.
The Administration led by Noboa did not take long to respond saying that the words were “very unfortunate” and declared the Mexican ambassador “persona non grata.”
Far from being intimidated, López Obrador doubled down on his comments on Friday, repeating the comparison.
At the moment, Ecuador has not reported whether it has received the formal request for asylum and its subsequent safe passage from the Mexican authorities.
With EFE
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