MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico has granted political asylum to former Ecuadorean Vice President Jorge Glas, the foreign ministry said on Friday, a day after Ecuador’s government made Mexico’s ambassador persona non grata amid growing tensions between the two countries.
Glas, convicted twice for corruption, has been holed up in Mexico’s embassy in Quito since seeking political asylum in December, arguing he is being persecuted by the attorney general’s office.
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.
Mexico will request Ecuadorean authorities grant Glas safe passage out of the country, the ministry said in a statement.
Ecuador’s government did not refer to Glas in its statement announcing its decision to expel Mexico’s ambassador on Thursday, citing instead “unfortunate” comments from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Ecuadorean officials were angered by Lopez Obrador’s comments on the South American country’s bloody elections last year, in which a presidential candidate was assassinated.
On Wednesday, the Mexican president compared last year’s assassination of Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio to violence during Mexico’s current election season, where several local candidates have been gunned down.
Lopez Obrador doubled down on his comments on Friday, repeating the comparison and blaming media outlets that he claimed were corrupt across Latin America.
The Mexican leader shrugged off the ambassador’s expulsion and said he would not retaliate with the same measure.
“For there to be a fight, there need to be two parties involved,” Lopez Obrador said.
