Ecuador's ex-VP hospitalised after capture in Mexican embassy raid

Ecuador's ex-vice president Jorge Glas, arrested in a raid on Mexico's embassy in Quito, has been hospitalised after refusing to eat, the prison authority said as a diplomatic spat over his capture spiralled.

Glas, 54, was in stable condition at a naval hospital in Guayaquil on Monday, the SNAI authority said in a statement, and will be kept under observation.

Ecuador carried out a raid on Mexico's embassy on Friday to capture Glas, who sought refuge there last December pending a corruption investigation against him.

Mexico had granted him political refugee status just hours before.

A Brussels-based lawyer for Glas told AFP news agency earlier on Monday that she feared for his life and pleaded for international help.

"I believe that Jorge Glas is at grave risk, at imminent risk, in the hands of the (Ecuadoran) government. It was a kidnapping, and I believe at any moment they could kill him," Sonia Vera said.

'Self-induced coma'

The SNAI statement said Glas had not responded during roll call at Guayas prison and taken to hospital after appearing to have fallen ill from refusing to eat for 24 hours.

Local media, citing a police report, said Gl as went into a "self-induced coma" after taking antidepressants.

Ecuadoran special forces equipped with a battering ram had surrounded the Mexican embassy late on Friday, and at least one agent scaled the walls, in an almost unheard-of raid on diplomatic premises, which are considered inviolable sovereign territory.

The intrusion triggered a political storm, with Mexico, several other Latin American states, Spain, the European Union and the UN chief condemning it as a violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention governing international relations.

Mexico, which cut diplomatic relations and pulled its diplomatic personnel from Ecuador, said it was filing a complaint at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Mexico's president said on Monday the raid was a "truly authoritarian" action by his Ecuadoran counterpart Daniel Noboa, 36, who took office in November.

"When there are weak governments that do not have popular support or capacity... those who do not have experience come" to power, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a regular news conference.

For his part, Noboa said he was willing to "resolve any difference" with Mexico, but defended his government's actions by saying Glas posed a flight risk.

"We could not allow sentenced criminals involved in very serious crimes to be given asylum," he said.