“They beat me,” a diplomat told CNN after being arrested during an embassy raid in Ecuador

“What you just saw is disrespect,” he told CNN , clearly bewildered, was the head of the Mexican embassy in Ecuador, Roberto Canseco. The statement was made after the invasion of the diplomatic premises and arrest, last Friday (5), by the Ecuadorian police, of former vice-president Jorge Glas, who was taking refuge there.

Canseco, head of Mexico's foreign ministry and political affairs in Ecuador, was restrained and thrown to the ground by police when he tried to prevent Glas from being taken away. When he stood up, he described the episode as “totally unacceptable” and “barbaric”.

“They hit me,” he exclaimed, shaking his hands. And he also described that his head hit the floor during the episode: “I physically tried to prevent them from entering,” he said when questioned by reporter Ana María Cañizares, from CNN .

See the moment of the attack:

In the images of the operation, it is possible to see police officers jumping over the wall of the diplomatic headquarters and one of the agents on the wall, with a rifle, at the moment the gates are opened, without Canseco's authorization.

“How criminals invaded the Mexican embassy in Ecuador. This is not possible, it cannot be, it is crazy,” he said about the police operation. “It is not possible for them to violate the diplomatic premises as they did”, he protested.

Asked if there was any prior warning that the invasion could happen, Canseco said: “no, this is completely outside the norm,” he said. “They didn’t let me do anything, I am totally defenseless in front of this group”, he said, adding: “by physically putting my life at risk, I defended the honor and sovereignty of my country”.

The diplomat said he was worried about the fate of the former vice president to whom Mexico had granted political asylum and was waiting for safe conduct so he could leave Ecuador. “I’m very worried because they could kill him, there’s no basis for doing that.”

Canseco took command of Mexico's diplomatic mission in Ecuador after Daniel Noboa's government declared Mexican ambassador Raquel Serur persona non grata and gave her a deadline to leave the country. In the statement in which she regretted the decision, the Mexican Foreign Ministry reported that it would grant political asylum to Jorge Glas.

Glas had been at the Mexican embassy in Quito since December. He has convictions for corruption, considered by the Noboa government as a common crime, which is why, according to the Ecuadorian administration, the granting of asylum would not correspond. After the embassy raid, Glas was taken to a penitentiary in Guayaquil.

The invasion of the diplomatic headquarters led Mexico to break relations with Ecuador. This Sunday, the entire Mexican diplomatic corps and their families returned to their country.

The episode provoked widespread condemnation from the international community. Practically all South American countries repudiated the invasion. The secretary general of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, said he was “alarmed” by the violation of the diplomatic headquarters.

The Organization of American States (OAS) stated that it “rejects any action that violates or puts at risk the inviolability of the premises of diplomatic missions and reiterates the obligation of all States not to invoke norms of domestic legislation to justify failure to comply with their obligations international”.

I condemn the violation of the installations of the Embassy of Mexico in Quito in clear failure to comply with the Vienna Convention of 1961.

I make a call to respect the international diplomatic right.

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) April 7, 2024

The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, condemned the violation of the embassy's facilities, violating the 1961 Vienna Convention, which governs diplomatic relations between countries, and called for respect for international diplomatic law.