Mexico on Friday granted political asylum to Ecuador's former vice president Jorge Glas, who is sheltering at the Mexican embassy in Quito, deepening a diplomatic dispute between the two Latin American nations.
Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa's government branded the move an "illicit act" and ruled out granting safe passage, raising the possibility that Glas will be stuck in the embassy indefinitely.
The announcement also comes a day after Ecuador ordered the Mexican ambassador out of the country in response to comments from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that irked Quito.
Mexico's foreign ministry said it had decided to grant political asylum to Glas "after a thorough analysis" of the situation.
Glas, who served under leftist Rafael Correa between 2013 and 2017, sought refuge in the Mexican embassy last December after an arrest warrant was issued against him for alleged corruption.
Ecuador said Friday that according to international conventions, "it is not legal to grant asylum to people convicted or prosecuted for common crimes and by competent ordinary courts."
Glas was released from prison in November after serving time for corruption in a vast scandal involving the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.
He faces another arrest warrant for allegedly diverting funds that were intended for reconstruction efforts after a devastating earthquake in 2015.
On Friday, Mexico complained of "harassment" due to an increased police presence outside its Quito embassy.
"This is what fascists are like," Lopez Obrador said at his daily news conference.
The two governments ruled out breaking diplomatic relations, despite Quito declaring Mexican ambassador Raquel Serur "persona non grata."
Tensions flared after Lopez Obrador on Wednesday drew a comparison between 2023 election violence in Ecuador, in which a candidate Fernando Villavicencio was murdered, and crime in Mexico ahead of the June 2 legislative and presidential elections.
Lopez Obrador said violence and "manipulation" by some media caused a drop in the popularity of leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez and the rise of Noboa.
The Ecuadoran government criticized his comments as offensive and said the country was still in "mourning" for Villavicencio, a fierce opponent of corruption.
Until a few years ago, Ecuador was considered an island of peace surrounded by major cocaine producers Peru and Colombia, but today it is also plagued by gang violence linked to the drug trade.
