Medellín, Colombia – Ecuador’s Overseas Minister introduced on Wednesday morning that Ecuador’s ambassador to Colombia, Arturo Felix Wong, has been recalled.
The transfer follows feedback made by Colombian President Gustavo Petro concerning Ecuador’s jailed former Vice President, Jorge Glas, who he referred to as a “political prisoner” and stated was not being given ample meals.
The spat is the newest in a sequence of diplomatic rows between the 2 neighbors this 12 months, which have included tit-for-tat tariffs and accusations about border safety.
Gabriela Sommerfield, Ecuador’s Overseas Minister, justified the withdrawal of the Ecuadorean ambassador from Colombia as “a protest in the direction of Colombia over the phrases utilized by Petro and the interference in choices made by completely different branches of the Ecuadorean State” in an interview with Centro Digital Radio.
The announcement adopted a number of inflammatory statements about Glas by Petro in current days. On Monday, the President stated, “it’s simple that Jorge Glas is a political prisoner.”
Glas has confronted a number of convictions for corruption-related prices however his supporters, together with Petro, accuse Ecuador’s right-wing authorities of persecuting him for being related to the progressive Citizen Revolution Motion.
“Letting somebody die of starvation, whereas below the care of the federal government, is a criminal offense in opposition to humanity,” stated Petro on Tuesday.
Glas is at the moment serving an eight-year sentence for bribery and legal affiliation, and a thirteen-year sentence for embezzlement within the maximum-security El Encuentro jail, which is modelled on Salvadorean president Nayib Bukele’s notorious jail system.
He was first convicted in 2017 for his involvement within the Odebrecht case, one of many largest corruption circumstances in current Latin American historical past, after it was revealed that he had obtained millions of dollars in bribes from the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht.
He has since obtained additional sentences and was launched briefly in 2022 however re-imprisoned shortly after. Later that 12 months, he was launched once more, and sought asylum within the Mexican embassy, claiming political persecution. However two years in the past, he was arrested in a controversial police raid of the Mexican embassy in Quito, resulting in the severing of diplomatic ties between the 2 nations.
Now, Ecuador additionally faces chilly relations with neighboring Colombia; on February 1st, Quito imposed a tariff of 30% on Bogotá, which it elevated to 50% in March. President Daniel Noboa stated that the levy was a response to Colombia failing to cooperate within the struggle in opposition to narcotrafficking.
Colombia responded with tariffs of 30% on 73 kinds of merchandise coming from Ecuador, together with rice and sugar, which later elevated to 50% for greater than 185 merchandise.
An additional dispute emerged final month when Petro accused Ecuador of bombing throughout the 2 nations’ joint border.
After recalling Ecuador’s Ambassador to Colombia on Wednesday, Overseas Minister Sommerfield introduced that conferences to handle the continuing commerce conflict between the 2 nations can be suspended.
Featured picture description: President Gustavo Petro at a cupboard assembly, October 22, 2025.
Featured picture credit score: @InfoPresidencia through X.
