Nicaragua announced on Saturday April 6, 2024, the rupture of “any diplomatic relationship” with Ecuador, after the police intrusion into the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest the former Ecuadorian president Jorge Glas who had found refuge there.
“Sever all diplomatic relations”
“Faced with the unusual and reprehensible action […]which provokes an irrevocable rejection, we take the sovereign decision to sever all diplomatic relations with the Ecuadorian government”declared the government of President Daniel Ortega in a press release, relayed by theAFP.
With this decision, Managua sends a signal to Panama. Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) has been a refugee since February 7 at the Nicaraguan embassy, which granted him asylum, to escape a prison sentence for money laundering.
A reaction of support in Mexico
Earlier, Mexico had severed its diplomatic relations with Quito, after police raided its embassy on Friday to arrest Mr. Glas, wanted by his country’s justice system for corruption. Mexico had just granted him asylum.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador denounced a “flagrant violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty”in a message on the social network
Mr. Ortega’s government expressed its solidarity with Mexico and recalled that it had withdrawn its ambassador from Quito in 2020 after the Julian Assange affair. The founder of WikiLeaks took refuge in June 2012 at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He remained cloistered there for almost seven years, before obtaining Ecuadorian nationality, and being stripped of it.
“On September 1, 2020, we withdrew our embassy in Quito […] we formalize [ce samedi] the severance of all diplomatic relations”added the government.