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Glas, convicted twice for corruption, had been holed up in the
embassy in Quito since seeking political asylum in December, a
request Mexico granted earlier on Friday.
Police forcefully entered Mexico's embassy in Quito before
making the arrest, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
posted on X.
The Ecuadorean president's office said in a statement it had
arrested Glas, who was vice president under the leftist
government of Rafael Correa between 2013 and 2017.
There was a heavy military presence at the magistrates court in
the Andean capital, where the former vice president was taken.
The arrest caps a week of escalating tensions between Mexico and
Ecuador, which on Thursday declared Mexico's ambassador in Quito
persona non grata, citing "unfortunate" comments from the
leftist President Lopez Obrador.
Ecuador contends that Mexico's asylum offer was illegal.
In a statement, Ecuador's presidency accused Mexico of "having
abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic
mission that housed the former vice president, and granting
diplomatic asylum contrary to the conventional legal framework."
Lopez Obrador said he had instructed Mexican Foreign Minister
Alicia Barcena to suspend diplomatic ties with Ecuador, calling
the arrest an "authoritarian" act and a violation of
international law and Mexican sovereignty.
Barcena announced the "immediate" suspension of diplomatic ties
with the South American nation shortly afterward on X.
Ecuadorean authorities had sought permission from Mexico to
enter the embassy and arrest Glas, who was sentenced to six
years in prison in 2017 after he was found guilty of receiving
bribes from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht in exchange
for awarding it government contracts.
Glas, who has a preventive arrest warrant out on another
corruption case, has complained that he is being persecuted for
his political affiliation, which Ecuador's government denies.
Ecuadorean officials this week were angered by Lopez Obrador's
comments on the South American country's bloody elections last
year, in which a presidential candidate was assassinated.
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa took office late last year and
quickly faced an escalating conflict with drug gangs, which
prompted him to declare a nationwide state of emergency early
this year, which he extended last month.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Boyle, Ana Isabel Martinez, Kylie Madry
and Raul Cortes in Mexico City and Alexandra Valencia in Quito;
Editing by David Gregorio, Matthew Lewis and William Mallard)
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