Ecuadorian police brutally assaulted the Mexican Embassy in Quito. Former Vice President Jorge Glas, who enjoyed diplomatic asylum, was arrested.

The tradition that when a State persecuted an individual for political reasons it was possible to take refuge in a foreign legation had been established during the bloody 19th century. Such a crisis undermines the fraternal cooperation that is required to combat such pressing problems as drug trafficking, crime, migration and climate change that besiege our people, writes Guillermo A. Soledad O'Brien, author of the novel Allende and the Suicide Museum, in a letter to the Mexican government. "It is essential, therefore, that this crazy action by Noboa does not go unpunished, that no ruler in another nation dares to follow his example," he writes, calling for a full investigation into the attack. "This unprecedented act has already had dramatic and dangerous consequences. Mexico has broken relations with Ecuador, a condemnation that has been joined by Latin American nations from both the left and the right," he adds.