The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, has forcefully challenged his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The Ecuadorian police raided the Mexican Embassy in Quito on Friday night, entering with armored cars and masked officers to forcibly remove former vice president Jorge Glas, who had received political asylum from the López Obrador government just hours before.

Glas — former president Rafael Correa’s right-hand man — was once one of the most powerful politicians in Ecuador. Correa’s political movement, the Citizen’s Revolution, even considered naming Glas as its candidate in the last presidential elections in 2023, which were won by Noboa. Glas, however, declined the nomination. In the hours following the 2023 election, he was to receive safe passage from Ecuadorian authorities that would allow him to fly to Mexico City, but instead Noboa ordered his immediate capture.

Glas — who in December sought refuge in the Mexican embassy when a judge requested his arrest — has two convictions for corruption, of which he has served five years in prison. On Friday, the police stormed the embassy, breaking the bars with bolt cutters and shaking a Mexican diplomat who was trying to prevent the violation of consular space, which is protected by international law. The agents took Glas away in a black van with tinted windows.

The head of the embassy’s Foreign and Political Affairs Department, Roberto Canseco, was inside the building when the police burst in. “At the risk of my life, I defended the honor and sovereignty of my country. This cannot be, it is unbelievable that something like this has happened. I am very worried because they could kill him [Glas]. There is no basis to do this. We were about to leave and suddenly we were met with police, with thieves who entered the embassy at night,” he said.

In response to the embassy raid, López Obrador announced almost immediately that Mexico was breaking diplomatic ties with Ecuador. “This is a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico, for which I have instructed our foreign minister to issue a statement on this authoritarian act, proceed legally and immediately declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with the government of Ecuador,” López Obrador wrote in a message on social media.

Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Bárcena, added that the right to asylum is sacred and asked all Mexico’s diplomatic personnel to leave the country. Mexico will go to the International Court of Justice to “denounce Ecuador’s responsibility for violations of international law,” she said. The Vienna Convention establishes that embassies are territories of national sovereignty and are inviolable.